The Six Souls
by SaintHeartwing
Summary: There were six other souls that came into the Underground after Chara and before Frisk. Six other children. Hope, Qiang, Neil, Christa, Anthony and Bonnie. What were their stories? What were their hopes and dreams, their struggles and their suffering? Let's find out. UPDATE: The Barrier is going down, the Souls are going free. And future looks brighter and brighter...
1. Hope and Change

**_Author's Note:_**

 ** _This is a full, absolute warning. This story is gonna get into dark territory. Because anyone who knows ANYTHING about Undertale and did any run-through of the game knows that you're playing as the eighth human to fall into where the game takes place. Into the Underground, the world of monsters. Which means seven others fell in...and they're not around anymore._**

 ** _So yeah. This story has child death. It has violence and heartbreaking themes. I don't intend to shy away from them as I explore WHY a child would ever climb up a mountain nobody ever came back from, to fall down into a world from which there's no escape. What would drive them to do that, what they'd do to try and get home if the chance was there. And what drives people to do desperate things in the name of improving their lives however small._**

 ** _I want this tale, much like Undertale, to reach people on an emotional level and to connect with others. If it can make you laugh, or cry, if it can fill you with rage and fury or horror, then I'll have done my job. Because people should be emotionally invested in what they write, in what they read, or play, or watch._**

* * *

 _Once upon a time, the surface world was ruled by two races. Human and monsters. One day, war broke out between the two races._

 _How it started, nobody was actually sure. Monsters blamed humans, saying that they'd started it. Humans blamed monsters, saying_ _they_ _were the ones who'd started it. But what the war was started about is almost universal._

 _Human souls._

 _Monsters could claim human souls, being magical creatures. Humans, on the other hand, didn't have access to magic with the ease and ability that most monsters had. Having magic was a rare, rare skill for them. And the idea of having their soul used as a power source or weapon by monsters was a terrifying prospect._

 _So they went to war. It was long and grueling, sickening to behold, the blood flowing freely and the screams of the dying and the wounded forming a cacophony of agony that echoed out through the skies. But after a long battle, the Humans were victorious, and had the monsters surrounded and cornered at a mountain. At first, monsterkind was terrified of the magic that they saw the humans were getting ready to use. Fearful of utter annhilation._

 _The good news was that, much like in the case of all war, the one making that final, terrible call...was a human being. Someone without a soul might have happily chosen to end it all there. But if there was one thing humans had going for them, it was their Souls, souls far stronger than monsters could ever be._

 _They decided, instead, to seal the monsters away underground, with a magic spell, heading down into the dark recesses of Mt. Ebott. And many years later, the twenty first century, 201X..._

 _A child fell in through the barrier on the mountain._

 _Why_ _did they climb it? It seemed foolish. Stupid. After all, people in the village down below knew the legends well. Anyone who climbed the mountain never returned._

 _But they climbed anyhow. And tripped. Falling down, down, down into the dark recesses of the Underground._

 _They were the First._

 _...but they were sure as HELL not going to be the last._

* * *

Hope shivered as she looked at herself in the reflection below. The little rain puddle below showed her gaunt face as she stared back, deep blue eyes gazing quietly back. Was that really her? Her skin was barely on her bones, her hair a frazzled mess of black, her clothes torn and muddy. What had once been simple and clean was now an ugly, almost unnatural shade of brown. She held a slender hand up to her cheeks, blinking a little. Was this really her? She hadn't seen a mirror in ages. Mom had never really been able to afford buying one.

"This is really me?" She quietly asked, her voice faintly hoarse and deep, a faint cracking to it that indicated she hadn't eaten in a long time. Her stomach slightly growled as she whimpered and shook her head back and forth. Hope Carver didn't have a lot of time to think about what she looked like. She had to find food and fast. So in desperation, she had gone to check out the only place that people stayed far, far away from. Mount Ebott.

Mount Ebott was an almost beautiful place. It had some fairly steep rolling hills, lined up and down with thick forests and moss on every rock. Everything about it seemed to be big and green and vibrant, save for a slightly ominous blackish/brown hole far above the town she came from. Clouds ambled by the mountain on a soft breeze as delightful golden flowers formed a kind of natural yellow-brick road that led travelers to the mouth of the northern cave at Mt. Ebott's peak, and it was all simple and unspoiled save for a few trinkets here and there.

Most noticably, a small aquamarine ribbon. Hope held it up in her hands, picking it up some distance from a sock and a fallen shoe. Evidently people had a tendency to toss trash and the like they really, REALLY wanted to get rid of into a few of the mountain's caves. Supposedly it was carried down via underground river or the like, out of sight, out of mind, and it was cheaper than going to recycle something.

It was a big deal, recycling. A new kind of person had moved into Simsbury. The urbanite who idealized country life and wanted to see the lovely green around them preserved as much as possible. It wasn't merely about sticking it to the big corporations they felt would rather tear down a forest to make a new golf course. It was about a sense of responsibility they had begun to develop, a feeling of wanting to do better than their parents had. They saw a beauty to suburban/rural life that they wanted preserved, and had gotten to work on making the town as green as possible, from free bicycles to making the work places and shops closer together to more public transit, all to cut down on carbon footprints, reduce traffic and clutter, and help keep the place green and beautiful.

But the problem was that while, for the most part, it made Simsbury feel timeless, a place that appeared to be eternally "small town, USA", it didn't solve everything. And it didn't solve the fact that homelessness was still an issue. The town's budget had been somewhat lessened to do all this, and it had come at a crappy time for Hope Carver and her mother Mary. They'd been able to scape by on the little they got from the state and the fed. But with cuts in the budget, this meant they'd no longer been able to keep up payments. Bit by bit, they'd just kept cutting back on their life. From what they ate to how they lived. Soon they were living out of their own car.

And soon Mary wasn't living. Period.

All she could pass on was a little knife. A toy, practically. Barely sharp. Just something to help Hope find some food. And Hope did NOT want to be taken as a ward of the state. She was just too terrified of being in the system. So here she was, trying to live on her own, hoping to find something on Mt. Ebott. Something left behind in what people brought up the mountain to help her. She quietly held the aquamarine ribbon in her hands, looking down at it before she tied it around a small cut she'd gotten on her arm. She didn't feel beautiful enough to put it around her head. Maybe the white girls in town would have looked good in it, but she didn't feel that way.

No. Hope just felt ugly and sad and hungry.

And she wanted something to eat so, so badly. So she kept climbing, following the trail of golden flowers, making her way higher up Mount Ebott, panting and heaving as she whacked at her stomach. "S-Stop it!" She whined out. "Y-you stupid tummy!" She grunted, breathing heavily as she reached the tippy top of a rise, finding the opening to the northern cave. She peered out, blinking a bit, gazing through the darkness as she held a thin hand up to try and get a closer look at what was inside. Any mushrooms? Tossed away canned goods? Anyth-

Then she smelled it. It smelled so, so good. So very good. A pie. She wasn't sure what type, but she knew the smell. If her mother had been good at one thing, that was baking pies. Hope closed her eyes, and allowed memory to sink into her, and for a moment she could almost see her mother pulling the pie off the little stove they'd had. She could smell the apples in it, and faintly taste the butter in the crust, and she could almost feel her mother's hand on hers as it was raised up. "Come on, have just a little taste, it's not too hot-"

And as she instinctively reached out, she tripped. She was suddenly falling, falling, letting out a terrified yell. She bounced against an incline, coughing and spluttering, agony shooting through her, but mercifully, large patches of flowers stopped her imminent demise. She twisted a bit, flopping against what felt almost like a big, giant, thick mattress, groaning as she looked around, suddenly gasping as the knife embedded inches from her head. She quivered a bit, and Hope finally reached over, picking it up from out of the ground as she stared around her.

She was a good quarter of a mile or so down in the mountain somehow, nothing but an endless abyss of black around her, the glow of the sun and the outside world far, far above her. She peered up, but as she glanced around, she took notice of something off in the distance. Hope blinked slightly, her heart swelling up with a renewed sense of happiness as she smelled that divine scent, and made her way towards what was unmistakably a gigantic purple archway. Was it some old temple or something, ruins from an ancient civilization buried deep underground? She didn't care. She smelled food. She smelled pie.

She made her way through the dark recesses of the underground, past some more golden flowers, through the archway. Unaware that one of the flowers slowly turned and stared off in her direction.

"...huh." It mumbled. "...humans still coming through...?" He murmured. "...I _wonder_."

...

...

...

...eventually Hope found herself in the enormous ruins of what had clearly been an immense city. Big windows had faded, almost utterly-worn-away glass in them, a large bunch of red leaves from nearby trees littering all around a double stairway leading up further into the ruins. A square ring of leaves had been expertly woven around a symbol that was etched into the faintly purple floor, Hope making her way across it, seeing a sign on a grey placard held above the doorway, squinting her blue eyes to get a good look at what it said.

"Home".

Hope blinked softly, biting her lip as she held the toy knife up, making her way deeper into the ruins, glancing about the room she found herself in. A group of stones were popping up on the floor, more signs on the walls as she looked it over, feeling the texture with her hand. Instructions. Hmm. And a lever nearby.

Wait. Was this a...puzzle? The African American girl blinked, a bit annoyed. But what could she do? She had to go deeper, there was no other way to get to anything else. And going back wasn't an option! So Hope moved herself over the stones, then pulled the lever. Nothing.

So she tried moving over different stones. Nothing again.

But then the second time, it worked. Going in a square, she opened up the doorway, heading into the next room, and a long hallway with little wooden bridges over water. She approached the water, glancing left and right, unsure of what to do. She was so hungry and thirsty and she had no idea if this water was safe to drink, but-

She didn't care. Getting on her chest, she leaned her head down and Hope started gulping down big swallows of water, the coolness refreshing against her parched throat as she let out long gasps, wiping her mouth a bit. She kept drinking, finally having her fill as she rose up, crossing over the bridge, seeing more golden levers built into the walls, and a small row of spikes up ahead.

Could this be another puzzle? Probably something to keep thieves or something away like the ancient egyptians did with pyramids. She approached the first two levers, pulling each and much to her delight, the spikes shot into the ground, Hope happily beaming. "Yes!" She proclaimed, moving forward, into another room. She noticed ivy was growing on the walls, and even more hung in thick patches in the next large hall, and something was waiting there, blocking off the hallway to the next room.

A...frog. She blinked at the big ol' white frog, with what appeared to be...a little face beneath? Was...what in the heck? She blinked, rubbing her eyes, then her stomach growled as she cringed. It was a frog, an animal, and that meant food. She was just so desperate. She inched forward, the frog hopping a bit further down the hallway, past the sign it had been readingas she readied the knife. "Sorry, Mister Frog." She inwardly thought, raising it high. But then she stopped, seeing that a loooooong would-be bridge of spikes lay up ahead and she cringed. Oh no. How was she going to get past this? She looked left and right at the water on either end, biting her lip. She had no idea how deep the water is, and she could barely swim. Mom hadn't ever had the money to get her swimming lessons.

But luckily, the froggy thing just hopped into the water. It's eyes were just above it and she watched it swim to the other end, hopping off onto the wooden planks connecting the spikes to the main hall and she breathed a sigh of relief. Phew. Just small enough to get over. She slid into the water, taking in deep breaths as she swam across, staying quiet as possible as she made her way towards the frog-like thing which kept moving forward, hopping and hopping in a long hall. A singular pillar was at the far end, along with ivy leaves running down different parts of the wall, and Hope readied the little toy knife she had as she kept moving closer to the frog-like thing.

Then she leapt forward, pinning the thing to the ground as it let out a squeaking croak, Hope holding the knife up. "Sorry, Mister Frog." She insisted as best she could, bringing the knife down as hard as possible.

 _THA-THLUK._

...

...

...

...Hope cringed a bit. She did NOT want to ever try to eat one of those things again. It wasn't just that it had turned into dust shortly after she'd tried a few bites, which had been so darn strange. No, the thing had tasted squishy and rubbery and awful, like eating a cheap costume put over a slab of meat. She cringed as she tossed the remains she hadn't gobbled down to the side, coughing a bit as she wiped her mouth, the young African American girl making her way into the next room. At least now her stomach was somewhat full, and she kept moving forward into the next room, following that same smell that tickled at her nostrils. As she made her way through the purple halls of the ruins, she took notice of very old, worn-down floors and gulped nervously, inching forward, hearing them creak and groan. She wondered if perhaps they'd give way, she could see cracks faintly visible. But...luckily enough, no. She got through. Wiping her brow, she took notice of a rock on a path towards an obvious switch in the next room, and took notice of a nearby sign on one of those familiar grey tablets.

"...three out of four grey rocks recommend you push them?" Hope read aloud. "...who writes this kinda stuff?" She murmured. "They're either really helpful, really strange, or really silly." She said with a shrug. "...or maybe all of that." She admitted, looking the writing over. "I mean, it is kinda scratchy." She said, feeling the texture of the letters with a quiet smile. A smile that she was surprised to find creeping onto her face. For once, she felt like something was funny! She hadn't felt like that in a long time.

Pushing the rock onto the switch, the spikes faded, and soon she was passing over another long stretch of hall with faded, slightly cracked floor. She kept moving forward, but then stopped, blinking in surprise at the odd, almost fairy-like creature that was wafting about in the air, nervously fluttering about. It was off at the far end, reading a sign on the wall. She inched towards it, carefully readying her toy knife, bit by bit getting closer.

"What sort of person puts a sign up that reads not to step on the leaves right above a patch of leaves?" The being said, Hope halting in place, eyes wide as she lowered the knife, mouth gaping in surprise.

"You...TALK?" She gasped out, her blood almost freezing in place as the creature turned around, with tiny little thin arms and legs, face mournful and sad, almost looking like a little floating bag with tiny wings and antannae as it quivered in midair.

"I-I'm sorry, I-did-did you want to read this?" It whimpered. "I'll-I'll just go!" It squeaked out in a high pitched voice, fluttering off through the air as a small, round, cycloptic thing appeared in the hall, giving Hope a dark look with it's singular eye, pounding it's tiny fist into its palm.

"You pickin' on a Whismur, lady?" It growled at her. "I don't **like** that. I don't like people pickin' on people." It grunted, little stubby horns almost throbbing in fury as it's yellow body bristled with rage, Hope holding the knife up, gritting her teeth.

"S-Stay b-back!" She yelled out. "I'm w-warning you!" She insisted, Loox's hands held up as she suddenly saw something manifest right in front of her chest. She gasped, reeling back as small glowing spheres of yellowish energy just barely missed it, and she panted, scrambling back to her feet, blinking as she looked down at what hovered before her chest. A heart. A little light blue heart that hovered in midair and was soft and warm to the touch. She blinked slowly, just looking at this beautiful little thing...

Before another sphere whacked into it and she went reeling back, feeling as though her entire insides were being punched. She panted and heaved, wheeling around, feeling anger and desperation surge up in her as the cycloptic thing bounced up and down on his tiny feet. "You pay attention to me, bully! I don't care what you do to me but I don't like people pickin' on-"

She tossed the knife at him. And by some stroke of luck, it hit him dead on, making him fall to the floor, quite deceased as she panted and panted, wiping her brow as the little blue heart faded away. What...what was going on? What had been that thing? And that heart?

...still...she wondered if this cyclops tasted any good. She nervously yanked the knife out of his eye, cringing, trying not to look at it and took the knife to one of his arms, sliding it off. She was amazed at how easily it went through, and surprised at the taste. Kind of like lemon-flavored chicken, she had to admit, munching away. Hmm. Not bad at all. She eagerly began munching away on more sliced-off pieces of this monster, happily eating it down to the bone before she noticed it was beginning to dissolve away into white dust just like the frog-thing had. She stepped back as the rest of it faded and she scratched her head in surprise. Was that what happened when a monster died? It turned into dust?

Ah well. She kept moving forward, past a small mouse hole, and through another bunch of rooms. She saw some spiders scurrying into a nearby room, quickly inching away from them into the nearest hall they WEREN'T going towards, and then finding a set of spikes that had shot into the ground, freshly retracted. Hope kept moving forward, into another room with small little crystalline statues, looking them over and seeing her reflection once again. She blinked a bit, seeing some of the dust that had wafted onto her clothes from her latest meal and she cringed, wiping it off her exposed belly, wishing she had a better shirt that wasn't so awful. Or a pair of real pants that wasn't in tatters.

But luckily, she was closer than ever to that wonderful smell. As she made her way into a three-sided hallway, she turned to the left, seeing a tree off in the distance with a somewhat diminished set of red leaves atop its thick black branches. Beyond it, she could see a figure taking something from off a windowsill in a little purple-brick home, Hope approaching it with her knife raised, making her way towards the house and inching towards the smell, hiding behind the door and inching her head in.

The walls were a soft yellow color, with flowers in pots all over, a collection of books in a bookshelf across from a stairway leading down, and well-kept wooden floors. It was warm and cozy inside this home as Hope moved towards the smell of pie, finding herself in a living room with a large table for three. Or rather, for what seemed to be two and a half. Two chairs were clearly for adults, one was obviously for a child. She could see a plushy brown chair with a yellow blanket slung over it by a fireplace that blazed nicely, and she could smell even more clearly that pie.

Something was kind of off about it though. Now that she was closer, that pie almost smelled kind of salty, sort of. What kind of pie-

"Ah, nothing like snail pie." A matronly voice rang out, tender and faintly authoritative with a slight soft musicalness to her voice as the form walked in, pie in her over-mitt-wearing hands. She halted in place, gasping in surprise as Hope stared in pure shock, mouth agape as well. It was a female monster, a faintly goat-like being with little horns and almost priest-like attire. She had on a deep purple dress with a blue chest "crest" that had white and almost religious markings on the front, with white sleeves to match her white-furred body, and a soft pair of blue eyes that looked Hope over in pure shock as Hope finally closed her mouth.

"A...A **human**?" The goat-like monster muttered, dropping the pie onto the floor as it splattered with a THA-THLULPA, sending pieces of pastries and snails scattering about as Hope immediately cringed and held her knife up in two shaking hands.

"S-Stay back!" Hope practically screamed out. "D-Don't you come no closer!" The knife felt heavy, almost too much to lift as she quivered and quaked on the spot, the goaty monster kneeling down by her spileld pie, sighing.

"Oh, that took hours to get just right." She murmured before rising up. "Please, don't be afraid."

" _Don't you come near me!_ " Hope yelled, racing backwards, barreling towards the exit, panting and heaving. She tore past the tree but tripped over one of it's branches, scufffing herself up further as she saw the figure in the doorway looking on in surprise. "I said stay away!" She screamed, racing towards the left, rushing into another nearby doorway as a frog-like creature wisely hopped away from her...

And she found herself trapped. She was on a large balcony that overlooked even more of the ruins, ruins of what had once been a beautiful city with an immense capitol building, a library far off in the distance, ramparts of a castle that were slightly cracked and crumbling. It would have been impressive and made her feel in awe if not for the very tall goat woman monster standing just a few feet from her. Hope held the toy knife up, quivering, whimpering.

"St-stay back! D-Don't come any closer! **Do-don't** -"

A gentle pair of arms embracing her. Soft as the wool on a sheep, the female monster nuzzled her cheek with all the tenderness of a lamb at a petting zoo. "I shan't _hurt_ you, little one." She insisted. "My name is Toriel. I'm Caretaker of the Ruins here."

And Hope allowed herself to cry and cry and cry.

...

...

...

...Hope had to get used to the slightly odd cooking style of Toriel. She didn't really like "snail pie", to be honest. Though fried snail actually didn't taste so bad. It had a faint garlicy taste to it as she munched away, with a bit of butter to take away from the slight squishiness that almost made her think back to that frog thing she'd eaten. Munching on the snails in the living room on Toriel's lap, Toriel calmly let Hope eat away as she rubbed her head. "So, little one. Tell me. However did you come down into the Ruins? Why are you here?"

"I was really, **really** hungry." Hope admitted softly. "I wanted to find something to eat. I knew people tended to throw away stuff on Mt. Ebott, and I wanted to see if there was anything good I could scrounge up, and I fell down here." She said, swallowing down the last of the escargot as Toriel confusedly tilted her head. She was astonished the child was still alive, she was so skinny and gaunt...how was the child not dead of starvation by now?

"What of your mother and father? Shouldn't they have cooked you something?" The goat-like monster lady inquired with a puzzled expression on her soft face as Hope immediately flinched and then Toriel really, truly looked Hope over, seeing how incredibly thin and worn down and gaunt the child was. "...they're...they're not with you anymore, are they?"

Hope tried not to cry again. She dug into her legs to keep the tears back from thinking about the moment her mother had stopped breathing. When Hope had run from the crappy Ford they had and had never gone back. "I never got to know my Dad." She finally managed to mutter out as she shook her head back and forth, scraggly hair flopping about. "And Mom never talked about him. I kept thinking that one day he'd show up and make things better but he never did." Hope said, her voice almost becoming dead and sullen as Toriel gently pulled her into a hug, resting the little black girl's head against her bosom. "Shouldn't he have done that?"

"Sometimes, a parent can't...can't always be there for a child when they need it most." Toriel whispered, and Hope could feel her voice breaking, faintly feel her heart pumping slightly more faster. "Sometimes terrible things happen and they can't stop it."

"...then what are we supposed to do?" Hope asked at last. "...what am I gonna do?"

Toriel just held her in that soft hug. She held her there for what seemed to be a long, long time. Then, at last, she rubbed Hope's head.

"We try to move on, I think." She said. "And we try to do the best we can with those still around us."

She gently kissed Hope's head, lifting her up and putting her on the floor, kneeling down and nuzzling her again with a little kiss on the cheek. "Would you like to get some sleep? You must be very tired."

Hope nodded, Toriel escorting her through a long hallway, across a big carpet of many shades of yellow. She opened up the first door, showing off a soft red room filled with children's toys, bear dolls, a little bureau and closet and a bed. And best of all, all the perfect size for a child. Smiling in delight, Hope looked up at Toriel as she gave her a smile. "Please, stay here for the night. I don't know if you wish to go further, perhaps into the town of Snowdin, tomorrow. But tonight, you could stay here. This was my son's room, but I don't mind you staying here."

Hope smiled warmly up at Toriel, giving her a nod as Toriel flinched a bit, seeing the dust on the child's clothes. "I'll, um...get you some new clothes too." She added nervously, exiting the room as Hope crawled into the bed. Toriel glanced back at the door, biting her lip slightly.

"...she's just scared." She finally decided. "She's surrounded by real monsters and she's scared. Don't judge her, Toriel." Toriel said to herself as she made her way to the storage room at the end of the hall, to get some of Asriel's spare clothes that she'd kept as Hope began to drift off into sleep, the first real sleep she'd had in a long, long time. Toriel opened up the door, carefully tiptoeing across the way with the clothes in hand, putting them down on the bureau for Hope before approaching the child who now lay on her side, softly breathing. She gently stroked her head, kindly looking down at her, softly murmuring.

 ** _Rest, my child. Rest with me..._**

 ** _Fill your night with peaceful dreams!_**

 ** _Sleep, my child...safe and free..._**

 ** _And when you're frightened, reach for me!_**

 ** _Sleep well my darling, don't be scared, don't be afraid!_**

 ** _I...promise I'll be here to chase bad...dreams away!_**

 ** _I'd been so lonely, now you're here, here in my home!_**

 ** _And...with you in my arms I know now...I'll not be alone._**

 ** _For you'll be part..._**

 ** _Of my heart..._**

 ** _So sleep...well, my chiiiiild..._**

 ** _Just sleep...juuuust sleep..._**

 ** _Rest my chiiiild...heeeere wiiiith meeee..._**

 ** _And maaay yooour niiight haaave peeaaacefuuuul dreeaaaams!_**

 ** _Sleeep myyy chiiild! Saaafe and freeee..._**

 ** _And wheeen you're scared, juuuust reeeaaach foooor meee..._**

...

...

...

...in the morning, Hope was awakened by the soft smell of scones, Toriel having a plate of them with some croissants, a cheery grin on her features as she led Hope to the living room to eat. A big pitcher of cider was on the table, Hope looking it over as she tilted her head in surprise at the label which was scratched-out on the top. "Spider Cider?" She asked.

"Oh, yes. The spiders do love baked goods and the like. Their doughnuts and ciders are their best sellers."

"The spiders in the ruins can...cook?" Hope asked, Toriel beginning to pour some of the cider into a glass for Hope as the young African American girl munched on a croissant. When Toriel had finished pouring and handed her the glass, Hope took a swig. "Hmm. Tastes really sweet."

"Well, they put great care into their work. All of it is made by spiders, for spiders, and with spiders."

Hope did a spit take, spraying the cider across the table, trying to claw off the taste from her tongue. "Oh! Oh! GAHK! _GAAUHHHD_! AAAHHH!  Spiders?! They-they made it from themselves? Like, all the guts and stuff?" She whimpered out. "Ew-ew-ew-ew-ew!"

Toriel deeply blushed. "I apologize. Perhaps I should have told you this sooner." She murmured apologetically as Hope ran for the sink in the kitchen to run her tongue under it. Luckily, the rest of the breakfast passed without concern, and soon Hope was being led down the stairs and through another long purple hallway towards what Toriel described as the exit, Hope now in a nice pair of light blue pants and a white shirt as she finally wrapped the ribbon in her hair and looked up at Toriel as they stood before the large arched doorway leading out.

"How do I look?" She asked as Toriel warmly smiled and adjusted the ribbon eeeeeever-so-slightly.

"There. Now you're **perfect**." She said sweetly, kneeling down and kissing Hope's head. "It's a one-way trip through this, I've never been able to find any switch that keeps the doors open. Once you leave, it'll slam shut and I've not got the strength to keep it open." The motherly monster sheepishly admitted. "Are you sure you want to go this way?"

"You're really, really nice." Hope said as she smiled warmly back at Toriel. "But I wanna try to get back home. I can't do it going back that way, so...could I do it out there?"

"Yes, there's a pathway back up out there. There's a very nice person who runs a boat that goes by Snowdin, a town not too far out past the tundra outside. If you talk to them, they'll guide you to where the barrier's located. Go on through that, and you'll exit the mountain." Toriel admitted, waving her hand, gesturing with a pointed nail at some far-off point in the distance. "It gets very cold out, so be sure to wear this blanket until you get to town and can afford some better clothes." She said, putting a small bag on Hope's back, and wrapping a little blanket around her. "It's not much to buy some decent clothes there. You should be fine once you get to town. Just don't tell anyone you're human, they don't...like humans much there. Try to keep a low profile as much as possible and just say you're a kid monster from deep in the Ruins." She offered.

"I'll try." Hope said as she gave Toriel a big hug. "Thanks, Ms. Toriel."

"Thank you, child. I think I'll have to keep an eye out for more children like yourself." Toriel admitted sadly. "I was alone for so long and it was...it felt good to finally have company after so long."

"Well, I fell down by a bunch of golden flowers way, way deep in the ruins. That's where the opening to the cave on Mount Ebott goes." Hope offered, Toriel flinching a bit as she cringed, wiping her eyes as she sadly laughed. "Ms. Toriel?"

"Sorry, it's...my son loved golden flowers. And so did Chara."

"Chara?"

"Sh-she was another human who fell down. She really loved golden flowers. Said they made her feel sunny inside." Toriel muttered out, slightly hanging her head. "She and my son were so close. I...it was as if she was the daughter I never had."

"You were a great mom. I can tell." Hope said, giving Toriel another hug. "If I get out, I'll send down pie recipes the next time I climb the mountain, promise!" She cheerily remarked, heading for the doorway, pushing the immense purple doors open. With a loud clanking, they pushed open, Hope cheerily waving goodbye as she raced down the hall towards the cool, soon cold, biting air off in the distance.

As she pushed another set of doors open, Hope breathed in deep, long, tall, dead trees lining a long stone pathway through a snowy woods. She passed by an immense stone, blanket wrapped around her as she hummed a bit, continuing down the path as the wind blew a bit harshly around her.

Seeing a wooden bridge up ahead, Hope moved over it, noticing a lamp nearby, combined with what appeared to be a small little wooden outpost that had snow lining its roof. But before she could move forward past the outpost, a voice rang out, deep, faintly echoing, colder than even the snow lining the path around her.

 **"...you a human?"**

"...hello?" Hope called out, glancing about, looking for the sound of the voice.

 **"...so you ARE human. well. guess that makes this easy."**

And just like that, Hope gasped, seeing something rushing towards her. A bluish-white beam of light that erupted out from behind the outpost. She dove away, the bag slipping off her as she clung tightly to the blanket, trying to make for the woods, only for another beam to blast her off her feet. She let out a pained gasp, flopping around on the ground, cringing as she rose back up to her feet. She panted and heaved, feeling as though her skin was on fire, the voice rising up through the woods again. It seemed to come from everwhere as it softly clucked its tongue.

 **"my my. surviving a direct hit from that? wow. you are GOOD, kid. real good. somethin' special. I almost not wanna do this. but you got blood on your hands. or should I say...dust? so it's kinda hard for me to feel sorry for you."**

Suddenly cold bony bars surrounded her, boxing her in, and a singular blue eye was faintly visible in shadow in the woods, getting closer...closer. A glaring, harsh blue pupil that had no kindness to it, the bones getting closer still, Hope trying to push them away, trying to break out, suddenly noticing that something was hanging right above her, mouth open wide. A horrific-looking, almost demonic, skeletal skull with energy coalescing around its maw as the being with the harsh blue eye spoke again.

 **"i really wish I could feel sorry for you. i wish I didn't have to do this. but try to understand, kid. you finally appearing after all these years? well..."**

It's grin was the work of demons, and Hope quietly whimpered as it's words were the last thing she ever heard before the beam from that skeletal THING above her silenced everything in her world.

 **"you're giving us all hope."**


	2. Burnout

**Author's Note:**

 **Thanks to those who followed, favorited and have reviewed this story! For those who worried about this perhaps becoming too dark, this chapter is slightly lighter than the last one.**

* * *

Qiang Chan had an...unusual talent. But it ran in the family, so...what were you gonna do?

Some people could whistle, others could lick their own nose, and still others could contort their body like a snake. These were pretty interesting little quirks, to be sure. And if people took pride in them, that's fine. There was nothing wrong with wanting to be unique and different and special. To have a little something you could point at and say "This is something I'm capable of doing that few others can, and it makes me feel good". People wanted to feel they were special. That was fine.

But Qiang Chan had a very, VERY special talent. And that talent was clear the minute that she'd punched the training dummy in her mother's dojo in Simsbury.

The date was October 19th, 202X, and it had been a nice, normal, peaceful day. The wind had blown softly across the New England town as leaves danced on the wind and people chattered about, milling near the town square as they readied themselves for Halloween. Pumpkins needed to be carved, decorations needed to go up and, of course, candy. So much candy to be bought. Enough to give people cavities for a decade would be bought in a single night. Truly, God blessed America.

But that peace was shattered for a few brief moments when a burning training dummy of a silly smiling clown went flying through the air outside of the local Martial Arts Dojo, skidded across the street, and finally flopped in front of the boy scouts selling pumpkins by the church. Everyone stopped what they were doing, gazing down at the slowly charring-to-black dummy as it's paint ran and it began to dissolve away, then stared across the street at the dojo. Eyes bulging, mouth agape, they saw the little gal sucking slightly on a fist that was very clearly on fire, and she giggled a bit, her mother appearing in the clown-shaped hole that the punch had made with her husband. apologetically waved a hand at the onlookers outside, grey and black hair a slight mess as he sheepishly grinned, his wife picking their baby girl up.

"Sorry!" Jackie called out apologetically. "So sorry. She's just getting used to...well, you know kids. They don't know their own strength, you know?" He insisted.

Everyone glanced about at each other, unsure of what to say. Silence seemed to reign over the town square for a while before, at long last, everyone decided it would be best to just not ask, and to just go back to their daily lives. When it came to the Chans...the best answer was roughly silence when they brawled.

For this hadn't been the first time this had happened.

The Chan family had moved to New England ages ago, one of the town's first Asian families and one of the most well-known due to their deep, deep love of their own Chinese culture. They always lovingly decorated their homes around every Chinese holiday, they'd had cherry blossom trees put into their yard, and they full-heartedly embraced the local Chinese restaurants of "Green Tea" and "Main Moon", giving generously. They had also opened up a martial arts dojo, and were eager to teach any and all who were willing about every Martial Arts technique they knew.

Some speculated this was because they were lonely. There weren't many Asian Americans in town and clinging to Asian culture was a way to feel surrounded by familiarity. A kind of safe little bubble to pop into at any time so they'd not feel so alone and out of place. Others felt they did it because they just wanted to look the part, and that trying to be as openly Asian as possible would make them easier to approach. If it was stereotypical, who cared? It was because it was Stereotypical it was easy to understand and this meant people could approach them more easily. Better to be thought of as indulging in Hollywood-style Asian actions than to be ignored completely.

But the true reason was because while Jackie was half Chinese, half American and his wife was half Japanese, half American, their love of Asia wasn't related to a desire to belong to the town they now lived in. It was because they had accepted a responsibility.

Their family had unique powers, passed down from generation to generation. And they were positively determined that their daughter Qiang master them to follow in their family's tradition of using such powers to help protect the lands they loved.

While in the West monsters may have been almost utterly driven Underground, in the East it was slightly different. There were clans of monsters that had survived the war, or fled early, hiding away on the surface. And this led to conflicts. The conflicts often were just chalked up to crazy tourists or lunacy nowadays, but in the days of yore, there'd been people to stand up for humans and to fight against dangerous monsters. In Japan, they were called _onmyoji_ , spiritualists who fought against demons and other monstrous beings. In China, they were called _Wu_ , diviners who acted as spirit mediums and shamans.

In America, they'd be called cuckoo for coco puffs. Nobody really believed in that kind of thing over here.

But regardless of whether they believed, The Chan clan wanted their family to always know how to fight demons and monsters, to master the power that had been passed from generation to generation. And so they'd teach all their children how it was done from the minute their powers manifested. And the Chans of Simsbury knew that Mt. Ebott was home to a portal right into the realm of Monsters. To them, this meant Qiang learning how to use her skills right was even more important.

"Keep your hands up." Jackie insisted. The young 8 year old Qiang held her fists up, breathing in and out through her nose as she faced down the new training dummy. This one was fireproof AND bolted into the floor of their shining, gleaming white dojo. Hopefully it would last a little longer.

Qiang had her mother's black hair, which she'd tied into a little ponytail, and her father's deep eyes. Jackie had taken a lot of guff for being named after a film star but he didn't mind, and his face beamed with good naturedness. His daughter, however, had an almost old expression on her features, she seemed so much more adult than she truly was. Readying her fists, she could feel the familiar blazing flames envelop them as she rushed forward, and uppercutted the training dummy.

"Ha!" She cried out as the head almost went flying completely off of "Mr. Biggles". "A Shoryuken, just like in the games!" She said with a big, almost stupid grin. She happily clapped her hands together with a large smile, Jackie slightly cringing. He was beginning to regret buying his daughter that Street Fighter collection. It kept giving her ideas for moves. Sure, she was performing them surprisingly well but still...real life wasn't always going to let her announce her attacks dramatically before she used them.

"Remember, you need to be responsible with these powers. You, your mother and I are the only people in town who may still believe that monsters could exit the mountain at any time." Jackie insisted as he knelt on the ivory floors of the dojo and ruffled Qiang's hair, giving her a comforting smile as she smiled back in her cute little black karate "gi" and orange Judo belt. He then pulled out a small orange bandanna, giving it to her as she wrapped it around her head like a headband and grinned. "You like it?"

"Oh, yeah!" She said with a beaming smile.

"It belonged to my own father and his father. Orange might mean a rather low rank in martial arts but for my family, it's part of our heritage and our pride in what we do." He put a hand on her shoulder and kissed her head as she smiled warmly back at her dad. "Qiang, I want you to **promise** me that you won't ever misuse your powers against innocent people."

"I won't ever." She said, crossing her heart, hoping to die, and sticking a needle in her eye as she smiled in delight. "Pinky swear!" She added as she held up her pinky on her right hand. "But you can do this stuff too, right? Can you show me?" Qiang wanted to know, clasping her hands together and beaming broadly. "Please please please?"

Jackie blushed a bit as his wife Jun entered, sipping on some green tea as she chuckled a bit. "Go ahead, sweetie. A little demonstration won't hurt." She insisted with a nod. Jackie stood up, facing down the dummy as Jun carefully knelt down by Qiang and helped her move back, Jackie taking a fighting position. He held his fists up, closing his eyes as he breathed in deeply...

And then when he opened them, his eyes were pure blue. Lighting coalesced around his fists as he shot forward, and his electrified fist made the dummy spark and sizzle before Qiang and Jun's eyes, the young girl gasping in delight as she clapped her hands. "Oh, yes, yes, yes! It's like fireworks!" She giggled. "Can everyone in our family do that?"

"Yes, all of us could. We don't know how many other families can, but we sure can." Jackie said as he turned around, the lightning fading from his hands as he knelt down to Qiang's level again and held one hand over her head. He smiled and chuckled as some static made her hair stand on end and she giggled at this. "It makes us unique, Qiang. And because of that we have a responsibility to help others and make sure monsters can't ever hurt anyone. Do you understand?"

"I promise, Daddy. Pinky promise." She said, holding her pinky back up.

"Consider it a 'Bandanna bond"." He remarked as he ruffled her hair a bit. "Now c'mon. Let's go get you an ice cream cone. You did well today!"

And every year since then, Qiang had taken her father's advice to heart. And so every afternoon she'd climb Mount Ebott with them on her insistence, practicing her moves on the slopes. She would be the sentinel standing guard, the first, and perhaps last line of defense. And as time went on, she felt more and more comfortable, as did her parents, with going alone. She would be fiiiine. She could take care of herself. How many other girls could punch through a tree with their bare hands?

Then on her twelth birthday, it had happened. They'd gone up for a picnic for her birthday and she'd been looking out over the expanse of the Underground that she could see from the northern cave. It had almost seemed beautiful to her, Qiang inwardly thought. She still wore her black gi with her orange belt and bandanna headband, but now she'd gained some surprising muscle on her body from the years of training, and she looked like one tough little kid. Yet something had called out to her, drawing her to the opening of the cave.

It looked like something gleaming off in the distance. She leaned in more closely to the opening, eyes peering out. Were...could she see people in front of that gleaming little light that glowed with such an odd blue color? It looked like people, people massed beneath some kind of castle and...and what was that blue thing? It was shining so brightly and-

As she tried to get a closer look to peer further in, grateful that she could see so much already from this height, that was when she tripped and fell forward. Down, down, into the darkness, her parent's cries echoing through the air as she let out a gasp.

Darkness hit her hard. But she awoke, thankfully, moaning as she heard her parent's voices faintly echoing out. "Don't move! We'll get a rope, we'll get you out". She wisely decided to stay put, and glanced around the darkness, just huddled against a stalagmite. Qiang was going to stay put. She was not gonna move. She was just going to remain right there until her parents-

"Howdy!"

...what the?

A flower. A little yellow flower with a white face was cheerily smiling up at her, head slightly bobbing back and forth. "Gosh darn it, you sure fell an awful long way, now didn't you?"

"Shénme tā mā de!?" Qiang blurted out. She immediately regretted this, blushing as she covered her mouth with her rather large-for-a-girl's hands. "Sorry, it's just...you're a flower. A FLOWER."

"Yep! Flowey the Flower at your service!" The flower said, bowing its head a bit. "Golly, you must be so confused. I ain't ever seen a human here for so long."

"...you're a flower." Qiang muttered. "...a...talking flower. I'm **so** confused."

"I guess somebody down here better show you how things work. Little ol' me will have to do!" Flowey said as he put a leaf/hand on his "chest" and beamed. "So, are you ready?"

"Um, for what, Mister Flowey?" Qiang wanted to know as she tilted her head to the side, confused. "Mom, Dad, there's a TALKING FLOWER down here!"

"...WHAT?" Jackie yelled out from far above. Had he heard that right? Talking flower? Jun looked back at him, scratching her head as they stared down, down into the darkness, their daughter barely visible thanks to her little orange bandanna.

"Did she just say _talking flower_?"

"Here we go!" The Flower said, as Qiang gasped, her parents seeing something shining in the dark. "See that?" Flowey remarked as Qiang noticed something floating in midair over her chest that looked like a little Valentine heart you'd give to someone at school. "That's your **Soul** right there! The very personification of your being! If you want to get power, you need to get EXP, which raises your LV."

"Uh, LV? Level?"

"No, Love!" The flower proclaimed, holding its head up high. "Y'all want some love, don'tcha? Well, down here, we share Love through little white "Friendliness Pellets"!" Flowey said, twirling about as little white pellets suddenly popped up in the air around him little dancing grains of rice. Qiang blinked in surprise as she looked them over. She stood up, holding a hand out as they shot towards her. "Try to collect as many as you can." Flowey remarked as she walked towards one in particular, trying to clasp her tipless-gloved hands over it.

And she immediately regretted it, because it burned like a hot coal, making her shriek as she reeled back. "QIANG!" Her parents cried out from above, Flowey laughing sadistically as Qiang reeled back, panting and heaving in agony. It felt like someone had just assaulted her insides!

"You IDIOT! Let me tell you how things work down here. In this world, it's Kill...or BE Killed." Flowey sadistically proclaimed, it's face warped and monstrous, fanged and foul, eyes black and with piercing white little pupils that were filled with sadistic glee.

"Qù sǐ ba!" Qiang screamed out, and her fist became enveloped in fire. Flowey's smug, sadistic mug faded to be replaced by one of complete and utter surprise as her fist met his face, and he went flying through the air. He slammed against a nearby wall with a THUNKA-THUD, Qiang rubbing over her gloved hands, smiling a bit. They were a special gift, slightly weighed down to add more punch to her...well, punches. And it felt good to have it collide with something living and, well, dickish.

Yeaaah...her mother might have been something of a bad influence on her in that regard. Boy could she swear when she got mad. But boy, could she PUNCH. And she knew then and there that despite her Dad teaching her most of the moves she knew, that punch? That punch was all Mom.

"Qiang, what's going on?"

"There's monsters down in here!" Qiang yelled out. "REAL monsters!"

"This is serious." Mr. Chan murmured quietly as he turned to his wife, the wind blowing their hair back and forth as they considered what to do. "...we have to go alert the authorities. We have to get a search team together. Honey!" He called out. "Qiang, we are going to the police. We'll get a team down there and we'll come down to get you!"

"Find someplace safe to hole up until we can find you!" Her mother insisted. "And don't let them claim your **Soul**! Remember the legends!"

"I'll be careful!" Qiang called out to them, heading for a nearby purple archway as Flowey's laughter rang through the air, making her shudder.

"No. You'll be DEAD."

...

...

...

...Toriel hummed to herself as she made her way through the ruins, heading for the opening that the human from before had fallen into. She made her way through the long hallway, whistling happily as she did, a large bowl of candy in her arms. She had to go put it down somewhere appropriate for any potential visitors, and luckily there were a few rooms in the ruins that had podiums she could set the bowl of candy down upon. Most of them were lemonade and fruit-flavored, hopefully any visitors wouldn't mind.

She just hoped the other monsters that lived in the ruins didn't eat ALL of them, sighing a bit as she found a room that would work. She put the bowl down on the little stone podium, placing a sign on it that read "Please Take Only One" as some disappointed-looking Eyewalker family members peeked in. The cycloptic yellow-skinned aliens sighed as they shuffled off, Toriel wiping her hands free of imaginary dust as she headed for the exit...

Suddenly she took notice of something odd. A yell had pierced the stillness of the ruin's air, and a few minutes later, a terrified, sobbing Whismur fluttered by, it's friends following after. "Fly, boys! Fly like you've never flown before!" She screamed out.

"Whatever is the matt-" Toriel tried to inquire. But Whismurs were almost pathetically wimpy. Toriel wasn't even halfway through her sentence when Whismur began sobbing, hysterically pointing behind her and then racing off. "Oh my." The goat-like monster intoned, scratching her head as she made her way towards where the Whismurs had been running away from, seeing there was something off in the distance. There at the end of the long hallway, a human in black attire with gloves and what appeared to be a bandanna over her head was facing down a Loox. Wearing a tribal-esque necklace, her fists were held up, sweat running down her arms and face, dust across her fists and over her arms and chest to a surprising and disturbing degree. But more frightening and surprising...

Her feet were on fire. At first, Toriel assumed that somehow Loox had set the child on fire, but that was impossible! The Eyewalker family didn't have any idea on how to launch fire attacks. Toriel could do that easily, but-

Then she understood, as the child's feet flew forward, and Loox was sent flying clear across the hallway, slamming into the pillar, sliding down the pillar and moaning as the ponytailed girl panted and heaved, lowering her foot as she wiped her brow. She breathed in deeply, cringing a bit as she held her chest. "Ohhhhhh. There's...there's so many of these monsters down there! How many more are there-?"

"Excuse me." Toriel's voice announced as she stood at the end of the hallway, blinking slightly stupidly. "But whatever do you think you're doing?"

The girl gasped, slightly jumping out of her skin before she put her fists up, fire becoming wrapped around them as she pointed accusingly at Toriel. "You stay back, monster! You'll lose! I'll kick your butt just like I've beaten all the others!"

"You're clearly tired and not thinking clearly, little dibbun." Toriel said, shaking her head back and forth as she folded her arms over her chest, sighing as she hung her head.

"Dibbun?" The girl asked, blinking in surprise at this odd title.

"For us, it means youngling. Please, think about this." Toriel pleaded softly. "You don't have to **hurt** anyone, little one."

"You're MONSTERS." The girl reasoned, throwing up her hands in the air in exasperation. "That means I do. I mean, you guys are the reason my family's here!"

"Whatever do you mean?" Toriel asked, tilting her head to the side in confusion.

"My family's been protecting humans from monsters for years. We did back in our homelands and now we're doing it here in America. Someone's gotta keep humans safe from the things that go bump in the night! Which is, well, you." She said, gesturing back at Toriel.

"We don't want to hurt anyone." Toriel insisted, before stopping herself. "Well, I don't. Not everyone in the Underground feels that way." She sheepishly murmured, and at this, the girl lowered her fists, seeing the obvious embarrassment on this goat-woman's face. She sounded positively ashamed. "My former husband swore to break everyone free of the Underground by acquiring seven human souls to become godlike and break the Barrier that keeps us in. I couldn't stand for such a thing, and came here."

The girl just stood there, staring for a few moments, before she finally spoke up. "...you seem honest." She admitted. "But if your husband's plannin' on doing that, I gotta try to stop him. It's what my parents would want." She remarked as she walked across the hall and stood before Toriel. "Are you going to try and stop me?"

"I..." Toriel looked pained, glancing away, obvious concern on her face. "...I might have left Asgore years ago but...I...I mean..."

The young human quietly nodded. She understood what Toriel was getting at. "What's your name?" The girl wanted to know.

"Toriel."

"That's a nice name." The human girl admitted with a small smile. "I'm Qiang. It's nice to meet you."

She took up a fighting position, fists at the ready as Toriel stepped back slightly. "Let's do this right. A decent match like how I've seen in the games and the movies! Two opposing **Souls** , clashing to protect that which they love!" She proclaimed. "...wow. That sounds cheesy now that I'm sayin' it out loud." Qiang remarked. "But I gotta get past and you don't want to let me pass, right?"

"No, I...I don't. Not really." Toriel admitted softly. "You see my kind as the enemy. And it seems I can't change your mind. Then I suppose the only thing I can do is fight fairly, and hope that your defeat will change your mind." With that, the girl's **Soul** blazed forth, orange and bright, Toriel facing Qiang down as she held up her own hands. "Prove it to me, child. _Prove to me you are strong enough to survive!_ " Toriel dramatically proclaimed, purplish/pink flames blazing around her, her face solemn and sad as her hands glowed brightly.

Qiang ducked, a wave of flames shooting towards her as she flinched, the flames heating up the room as she slightly panted. She was a little weak from her fighting before, but she had to get through. She shot forward, her fist slamming into Toriel, knocking her back slightly, but the goat-like monster's face remained resolute. She swept her arm across the room, a wave of flames shooting forth at Qiang. Qiang didn't dodge in time, and they slammed into her Soul, launching her back, across the hallway.

Qiang grunted, rising up from the ground, bouncing back and forth on her feet, gritting her teeth slightly as she raced towards Toriel, fist held up high, emblazed with flame. Toriel held her hands up, eyes open, slightly glowing as purplish flame wafted through the air from all around. It was as if a thousand purple fireflies were converging on Qiang, and she was sent spiralling back, panting and heaving, her clothes slightly tattered and torn from the assault as she quivered, rising back to her feet. "Th-that...that really huuuurt." She managed to get out.

"Please, little dibbun. Just...just stop." Toriel whispered softly, eyes begging. " _Please_."

"I can't!" Qiang yelled out, holding her hands behind her, focusing as best she could. She could feel it building up in her palms, an intense pressure far different than the swift tingling that came from her normal attacks. She focused on the pressure, and she could feel the fireball building in her palms, and with a cry, Qiang launched it forward. It shot forth like a spear, Toriel gasping in surprise as it launched itself at her. She dove to the side, but it sliced across her shoulder, making her cringe as she clutched at her wound, panting and heaving as she wiped her brow and rose back up.

But then Qiang's foot caught her in the face, making her flail back, before a swift series of punches struck her in the legs. She gasped, falling down towards the floor, Qiang rising in the air, her leg wrapped in flames as she brought it down on Toriel's back.

With a burst of flame and fury, cracks embedded in the hallway floor as Toriel cringed, gasping in pain. She quivered in agony, Qiang heaving slightly as she stepped back, wiping her brow, bandanna soaked with sweat. She took the orange bandanna, off, looking down on the goat-like monster as Toriel whimpered in pain. "You're...you're so much stronger than I thought." She moaned, flopping onto her side to look at Qiang. "If...if you keep walking, you will eventually reach an exit. But...Asgore. You...you cannot let Asgore get hold of your **Soul**." She whispered, Qiang cringing as she stepped back.

It had seemed so easy. The idea of just fighting monsters. Keeping humanity safe. Just beat them up like she'd seen so many times in the games and in the films she watched. But actually doing it had been hard and felt dirty, and now...now seeing Toriel lying there, she felt horrified. "I..." Qiang murmured. "...I'm..."

"I know." Toriel whispered, panting slightly, flopping onto her back, closing her eyes. "I know, little dibbun. I understand."

With that, Qiang gently stepped forward, clasping her feet together, and offering an apologetic bow as she exited the hall, Toriel covering her eyes with her arm.

And quietly crying.

...

...

...

...snow. Real snow.

Qiang knelt down, feeling the snow pass through her fingers as she blinked in surprise. That candy had her feeling like a million bucks, as had the pie on the kitchen table in what she guessed was Ms. Toriel's home. She still had some of that candy in her pockets, and she quietly wished she had pocketed some of the pie as she looked around the dark woods all about her. Somehow, she felt...disturbed. Something about all this felt...wrong. She wasn't sure, but-

Then she saw it. Something was on the ground off by that rock near the exit of the ruins. She had seen it out of the corner of her eye and now as she approached it, she plucked it up. It was a faded aquarmarine ribbon. Qiang held it over in her hands, looking it over-

 _Hope gasped, seeing something rushing towards her. A bluish-white beam of light that erupted out from behind the outpost. She dove away, the bag slipping off her as she clung tightly to the blanket, trying to make for the woods, only for another beam to blast her off her feet. She let out a pained gasp, flopping around on the ground, cringing as she rose back up to her feet. She panted and heaved, feeling as though her skin was on fire, the voice rising up through the woods again. It seemed to come from everwhere as it softly clucked its tongue._

 _ **"my my. surviving a direct hit from that? wow. you are GOOD, kid. real good. somethin' special. I almost not wanna do this. but you got blood on your hands. or should I say...dust? so it's kinda hard for me to feel sorry for you."**_

"Shénme tā mā de!" She screamed out, dropping the ribbon as it slipped under the tiny crack beneath the ruins door, sucked on in and wisping away as she stepped back, cringing, dark brown eyes filled with horror. She gripped the prayer bead necklace around her neck, uttering a prayer for the dead, suddenly realizing she had seen a black girl's final moments alive before-

 **"another human? and kinda quickly after the last one. what's it been? only ten years?"** A deep, faintly echoing voice rang out. It's tone was cold and calculating as Qiang whipped around, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up as she saw the figure from her vision there in her path. It removed the hood it was wearing, showing off it's bony face, it's smile without humor as it chuckled slightly. **"what's the matter, kid? you look like you've seen a ghost."**

"You murdered that girl." Qiang murmured quietly. "...you **murdered** her."

 **"yeah. I did."** The skeleton's tone became more somber and reflective. **"we want** **out** **, kid. we want out real bad. and having seven human souls will let us do that. try to understand."** He said, taking a step forward. **"do you know what it feels like? knowing nothing is gonna change? stuck forever down in the dark and the damp, endlessly trailing off into nothing? stagnation and silence, kid. forever and ever. until that kid fell down here, we had two things to look forward to."**

He took in a long, deep breath. **"jack and shit. And jack left town."**

"Qu Ni De!" Qiang screamed at him. All that guilt she'd felt at beating up Ms. Toriel was fading, now turned into pure rage towards this...this THING that was mockingly looking her over, so calmly discussing the murder and plunder of children's souls. And who now wanted to add her to the collection. "Monsters like you are the reason why my family swore to protect humanity from your kind!" She roared out, and the fireball flew naturally from her outstretched palm as she thrust it forward.

The skeleton didn't even have time to dodge, his face was positively stunned as it struck him full-on in his mug, knocking him down the path. He rolled along like a barrel, Qiang racing towards him, fists held at her sides, letting out a powerful roar as her ponytail whipped about in the cold winter air, fire rising off her furious form. The skeleton finally hopped back up, Qiang slamming into him, making him slam into a tree as she leaped up, climbing onto another tree, scuryying up to the top as fast as she could.

As she finally reached the snowy tip-tops of the tree she stood upon, she saw the skeleton climbing up, chuckling slightly as a faint blue light glittered out from his left eye socket, his pupils faded and gone, save for that unearthly light. **"the name's sans. sans the skeleton. don't think badly of me kiddo. but we need your soul. and I intend to take it. see, it's my job. and I know I seem the easygoing type. but, well..."**

He grinned.

 _ **"i'm pretty good at my job."**_

He clasped his hands together, holding them behind his back, and he laughed coldly. A skeletal, bestial face appeared above him, horned and monstrous with a mandibled face that leered cruelly at her. It fired off a beam of whitish/blue at Qiang as she launched herself high, high above the air, landing on another tree, panting and heaving. She took her bandanna and wrapped it around her head like a headband again, holding her gloved fists up as she shook her head back and forth. "Not gonna be that ea-"

She then ducked just in time to avoid another blast from one of those freakish floating skulls as Sans shook his head back and forth, barely clinging to the tree she was atop as Sans nonchalantly waved a hand in the air. **"yep, 'fraid not. for either of us, looks like."** He said, Qiang swinging herself over to another tree as another skeletal head fired off at her, blasting the tree down. It came crashing into a long row of trees, sending them collapsing as Sans tilted his head to the side in surprise, Qiang climbing back up to face him as she thrust her palms forth, a fireball shooting at him as he ducked to avoid it. **"you think I'm gonna stand there and letcha hit me? nah."**

"You think I'm just gonna lay down and die?" Qiang yelled back, kicking off the tree as she soared towards him, foot held up to smack into his smug face. He blinked, hopping off as she landed where he was, Qiang twirling with the dexterity of a ballerina as he nodded, clearly impressed.

 **"wow. really, color me impressed. you've got real moves, kid."** He admitted to her as Qiang smacked her fist into her palm.

"The Chan family has a long history of "moves", monster. I'll defeat you with our cherished fighting style!" She proclaimed. "So remember my name!" Qiang added as she shot through the air, twirling around and around like a tornado. Sans tried to leap away, but her foot struck him, knocking him through the air like a football as he went sailing down to the ground below, Qiang landing on a nearby tree. She stood tall over him, arms crossed over her chest as her belt and bandannae fluttered in the wind, Sans staring up at her as he managed to pick himself up from the snow he'd landed in. "QIANG CHAN!"

 **"you and my brother Papyrus would get along splendidly. you both love shouting things about yourself."** He remarked, doing a slow clap as he bowed his head slightly. **"gotta admit, kid. you're impressing me. but let me tell you, kid. i've kinda been doin' easy on you. now?"**

His voice was like squashing bugs as he spoke.

 **"now you're gonna have a** **bad time** **."**

Qiang barely jumped back in time, the blue-jacket wearing skeleton giving her a sort of playful wink as long, thin, yet powerful boney pillars shot up. They almost slammed into her as she ducked and dove away from the trees, landing on the ground and rolling, trying to avoid the bony assault, but one large bony pillar suddenly struck her and she went flying through the air, slamming into a tree. She slid down it, cringing as she coughed slightly, some blood splurting out from her mouth as she tried to get up, rolling away just in time to avoid getting struck by another pillar before the ground suddenly seemed to erupt around her. She was sent spiralling up through the air, grabbing hold of a black platform, her body aching, her SOUL pulsating as Sans nonchalantly sat on another nearby black platform. Bony pillars raced along the ground as she tried to hop from platform to playform, not wanting to fall down towards a sharp, pointy demise.

 **"my brother's good at this kind of thing. much better. but he holds back a lot. even more than I do, and** **that** **? that's sayin' something. "** He told Qiang as she gave him a dark glare, wiping her bloodied mouth on her arm. **"he tried to look for another way out for us. trying to find an answer in the space-time continuum. it isn't working out so well. so we're going with plan b. usually best to go with plan b anyhow."**

He tapped the side of his head, a couple of horrific, leering, demonic skeletal face popping up at either side of him as he looked at the horrified Qiang, who leapt off to another platform just in time to avoid their horrific assault. The beams shot through the air, one of them clipping Qiang on the shoulder as she howled, flopping onto a lower black platform, clutching at her wound and gasping in agony.

 **"he taught me that technique. calls it the gasterblaster. well, actually, I call it that. he's smart, but he ain't that creative."** the tubby, jacketed skeleton commented wryly.

Qiang cringed as she tried to stand up, Sans sighing as he clenched his fist. Another horrific skull popped up right in front of her, Qiang reacting as fast as she could, fist shooting forward. Sans blinked in surprise as the burning fist shattered the gasterblaster, and Qiang rose up on the black platform, the bones fading away beneath as Sans nodded.

 **"wow. really impressive. gotta say, kid. you do impress. but I wanna know something. why are you doing this? like I said, we'd been looking at an anomaly in the time-space continuum. timelines going wibbly-wobbly, time-wimey, up and down, scattered left and right and then...it all just ends."** Sans said, his tone becoming darker, colder, his eyes empty sockets without light. **"just the darkness stretching out. and i'm guessing that might be you. cuz it seems like i can't not care with you. i can't hold back. you'll kill ALL of us if i let you go. you think i can't see how dusty your gloves have gotten?"**

"And you'll kill all of US if I don't." Qiang said, panting and heaving, clutching her shoulder as she cringed, tears brimming in her eyes. "You're monsters. Hurting people is what you do. Why do you think we went to war with you all those eons ago? Any creature that can steal someone's soul for kicks shouldn't get to just walk around on the Earth!"

 **"whaddya call your little** **pyrotechnics** **?"** Sans accusingly asked, tilting his head to the side in amusement, Qiang flopping onto the ground as he plopped down across from her on the road.

"As far as I know, my family's the only people who've ever done this stuff. Nobody else can do it. But every single monster I've met can toss fire or balls of energy or summon flies or white bullets or big bony faces!" Qiang yelled back, shakily rising to her feet. "We've got every reason to be afraid of you! Even your FLOWERS shoot people!"

Sans's appearance suddenly went disturbed, his face looking as though he was recalling something that he didn't want to think about. And then...

 **"...kid, look."** He said softly. **"i...i can feel it in you. you want to do what you think is moral. i know that somewhere in there, there's the glimmer of a good person inside you. you just want to do what's right. so...c'mon. just stop this fight and...well..."** He shrugged. **"it'll make everything a whole lot easier."** The skeletal monster remarked quietly.

Qiang bit her lip, hand clutching at the wound in her shoulder, spitting out some more blood from her mouth. Her Orange SOUL glimmered and pulsed before her chest as she nervously looked at it, then at Sans. Her insides felt like they were on fire, her body aching, and she...

She wanted to go home.

All the discipline, all the training and all the effort she'd put into trying to be the righteous defender of humanity was considerable. But she was still just a twelve year old girl, and now she collapsed onto her knees, sobbing openly as Sans guiltily stared back, cringing at this as he looked away, eyes closed.

 **"oh, geez, kid, look, don't...c'mon. don't be like that. you've mad some pretty bad choices. i'm just glad you finally made the right one."** He said, holding his hands up, shrugging a bit. **"i know how hard it is to make that choice. to go back on** **everything** **you've worked up to. both my brother and I lost everything we'd worked for and had to give up. it all seemed like there just wasn't any point. but we had to find a new way. a better way. and i want you to know...i won't let what you've given to me go to waste."** He spoke gently, holding his arms out. **"c'mere, pal."**

Qiang sniffled a bit, wiping her runny nose on the arm that didn't feel barely connected to her body anymore as she walked forward, Sans gently embracing her in a fashion that was oddly soft, his jacket strangely warm as he patted her back. **"there, there, kid. don't worry. i'm here."**

"I wanna go home." Qiang finally managed to get out in between sobs. "I'm so cold."

Sans stiffened and quivered a bit at this, and she faintly felt his hand gently resting on her neck.

 **"i know. and...i'm sorry. i truly am."**

And that was all she remembered before darkness claimed her.


	3. Collecting Dust, Pt 1

He sat there on the edge of the natural platform, his lower legs dipped into the oddly warm water as faint sparkles lofted up around him. They flittered up from the strange surface of the water, dancing about through the air before vanishing into the near-endless abyss of starry lights in the immense cavern "skyline". Across from him sat various blue, faintly glowing flowers that slightly seemed to breathe in and out, as if alive, breathing alongside Neil as he sat quietly, waiting. Just...waiting.

He was an odd sight, without a doubt. The caverns, despite being alit with the faintly glowing waters that cascaded all through it, and the soft light blue of the echo flowers, and the dazzling crystals embedded in the ceiling acting as would-be stars, it was all oddly somber and sad. All of it was faintly melancholy, the beauty trying to cover up the faint tinge of sadness that infested all of Waterfall. Waterfall was, in some ways, a place where dreams of the Underground came to die. This was your last resort. Either you were there to make a wish in the Wishing Room where the starry crystals were closest to the ground...almost close enough to touch...or you were there for the garbage dump. The endlessly flowing rivers that carried garbage and refuse tossed from the outside world to the underground rivers of Mt. Ebott kept on flowing down, down into an endless darkness from which there'd be no escaping if you found the right spot and just...

Stepped off.

Neil had been tempted. He was only 11 years old, and he'd been tempted to just...step off the edge of one of waterfalls eponymous waterfalls. Just...fall out and let it all end. To let the darkness claim him. But he wanted something more. He wanted something that fit.

And so Neil quietly waited, finally sensing that she was here and standing up. His soft blue eyes scanned in the direction he knew she came from before finally speaking. "Undyne."

The singular piercing eye he could see stopped, its singular yellow eye going wide in surprise. It's black pupil narrowed before the armored form stepped forth, helmet taken off as it held it in one arm. "How do you know my name?"

"I know a lot about you." Neil quietly murmured. His voice was faintly midwestern, and somehow, despite looking so young, he seemed so much...older in this moment. A normally youthful, blond-locked face was wracked with what seemed like years and years of pain. He had eyes that seemed to be centuries old, filled with deep regret and loss, even his slightly puffy blonde hair looking grimy and worn. All a stark contrast to the cute little pink tutu and ballerina attire he had on. Slowly one of his hands that hung at his sides reached up and lifted his shirt, revealing a wound Undyne, Head of the Royal Guard, recognized instantly. A familiar bruise mark that indicated where a spear had gone through his body...a magic spear, that is. Faintly blue, with a dark point just barely visible, and twitching light blue lines emanating from the wound, Undyne could see he'd been speared at least six times.

"How in the..." She whispered, her voice almost breaking with pure shock. Only she knew how to do that! Her blue, scaly face was full of amazement, a faint hint of fear, and a tiny blend of anger and worry as the human kept staring at the fish-like head of the royal guard.

"Can you swim, Undyne?" Neil asked her, Undyne blinking rather stupidly in confusion.

"Of course I can!" She remarked, shaking her head...before she saw Neil spread his arms wide.

His smile was hollow.

"I never learned."

And with that, he flopped into the water behind him, Undyne gazing on in shock before she found herself racing forward, the world around Neil going so oddly warm and dark.

...

...

...

...Neil Elliot's family had moved from Kentucky when he was seven, and despite his father feeling that Neil was too young to remember, he was dead wrong. Neil could remember how the sunset had lit up the corn fields, the vast stretches of plain, and the soft Kentucky wind. He could remember the smell of potatoes and farms in his nostrils, and the embrace of his mother. And the sad thing was, that was all he could remember of her. Because her death had made her father unable to stand living in Kentucky. So off they'd gone to Simsbury, to live near the fabled Mount Ebott.

Neil had tried to adjust. But he didn't much like his dad's attitude. His father was a very, very red-blooded, red stater moving because of a job offer from an old friend on the east coast. He was determined to help turn Connecticut red, and that his son think the same way he did. His father Arthur had grown up in 2010 during the height of the notorious Tea Party movement's popularity, and had pretty much soaked up everything it had to offer. Regrettably, at least to Arthur, most of the country had not taken kindly to Tea Party politics, and this made him something of a dinosaur.

Especially in the quite liberal Connecticut. So Neil was embarassed by his father's ranting about how govt was too big and taxes and all that crud. Especially on the days when the school encouraged parents to come in and talk about what they did. It would always lead to a kind of stream-of-conciousness rant from Arthur about everything wrong with America, liberals, communists, liberals, China, liberals, those awful Canadians, liberals, green energy, liberals, etc.

So Neil not only had to adjust to a new home, and new kids, but a father who's viewpoints couldn't just be shrugged off in a more liberal environment than what his dad was used to. And his dad had gotten far less tolerant of anything remotely liberal or effeminate and sissy.

Which is why when Neil had taken ballet, he'd almost flipped his lid.

"Are you...serious?!" Arthur Elliot had asked the teacher of the ballet class at the PTA meeting at the school, who also happened to be the art teacher. She gave Neil an apologetic look, realizing she'd made an awful mistake in bringing up Neil's passion not only in art class, but ballet after school. "I thought he was doing baseball!"

"Oh, sir, um, not quite. Are you not comfortable with your son-"

"You're damn right I'm not!" Arthur snapped, arms folding across his chest as he glared over at his son from behind his thick glasses and thicker moustache. Neil inwardly gulped, but then a glint came to his eyes as he glanced left and right.

"Dad, listen, can we talk out in the hallway?" He asked, Arthur frowning slightly before sighing, taking hold of his son's shoulder as he headed into the hallway outside of the library the meeting was taking place in.

"Ballet? You're really doing ballet? Son, that is just...I cannot even!" Arthur was on the verge of exploding. He needed defusing fast. But then Neil asked a simple question.

"Dad, what does a ballet class have a lot of?"

"Well that's easy!" Arthur said with a hearty snort. "Ballet's got lots of-"

He stopped himself, mouth slightly agape, doing a double take. "Dames."

"That's right, dad! Dames! The chicks. And if there's one thing I love more than anything else, its bein' in a room full of hot ladies!" Neil proclaimed with a big ol' grin as his father clasped his hand on his son's shoulder, a look of pure pride on his face.

"Well, son, why didn't you say so? You're a chip off the old block!" Arthur laughed, grinning as he made his way into the PTA meeting once again, Neil wiping his brow, the smirk fading from his face as he groaned.

What could he say? When the going got tough, the bullshit got going.

But in truth, he knew this was the only answer that would have pleased his father. For you see, Neil knew a lot of things he shouldn't have. Things he normally could have never known. And he only knew them because he had an unusual ability. A skill that as far as he knew, nobody else had.

And it was that skill that allowed him to remained untouched at school from any bullies or harassment. He'd practically glide through the halls, a big ol' smug grin on his face as he ducked to avoid every single one of Big Tom's clotheslines that would randomly jut out from a corner, leapt over all of Cindy "Slam" Syzmanski's feet as she tried to trip him, and expertly avoided every single hall monitor when he was out buying stuff from the teacher's lounge vending machine when he wasn't supposed to. How?

Simple.

"Left alleyway, duck, then twirl around and jump backwards." Neil whispered to himself, nursing a slightly bloodied lip as Big Tom pulled him up by his blonde hair, glaring down at the young eleven year-old as he was surrounded by his little posse.

"What're you sayin'?" Tom asked with a grown on his thick-nosed face, dark brown eyes narrowed darkly.

And then, just like that, Neil was back. He was walking down the sidewalk again, and he grinned proudly as he ducked underneath Tom as he tried to reach out to grab hold of him. Smirking, he then turned around, sticking his tongue out and then leaping backwards, avoiding a crack that would have tripped him up as he stuck the landing expertly, giving Tom and his friends an elaborate bow before rising back up with the fluidity of a swan.

"So close! So far. Not this time. Not. This. TIME." Neil laughed, before racing off down the sidewalk and past the convenience store to head back home, Tom fuming darkly as he clenched his fists and ground his teeth.

"How does he always know when we're about to try and do stuff to 'em!?" He yelled out, stomping his foot on the ground. "It's like he's freakin' PSYCHIC!"

Oh, if only Tom knew. Neil had a fascinating ability. The ability to "RESET". He could go back to a moment in time before something awful happened. And he'd done it time and time again, and to great effect.

He'd first discovered it on the day of a big test. Tom had beaten him up the day before for being in ballet, and Neil was freaking out, having spent the entire night sore in bed, nursing what he was sure was a broken pair of ribs, unable to concentrate on studying. Head held in his hands, the clock had been ticking down. Tick...tock. Tick...tock. Continuously ticking against soft blue walls, Neil's eyes bugging out, sweat pouring down his brow and onto his white, well-buttoned longsleeve shirt. His mind had been drawing a blank, his mouth hanging open as he found himself finally letting out a scream.

 **"THIS IS SO UNFAIR, IF HE HADN'T-"**

And then, just like that, Neil was on the sidewalk close to the convenience store, realizing he was in the same spot he'd been in before Tom had popped out, seen him, and decided to beat him up. Quickly diving into a nearby alley and hiding behind the dumpster, his heart panting in his chest as a faint golden glimmer seemed to shine off his form for a brief moment, he realized he had gone back in time. Through pure will, he had shot back in time to the day before, and now? Now he could study for the test.

And so he'd used RESET again and again, able to go back an entire 24 hours. With this, he could now ace every test. Know when every bully was going to try to knock him down. Know every single response that would make teachers or his father happy. And with this, he was quickly rising in popularity despite being an 11 year old boy who took ballet class in 204X.

And it was this popularity that led him to be invited to the top of Mount Ebott for the big kid's party. That day. The incident.

"You actually came? Oh WOW, you just do not give a FUCK, do you man?" The high school kid remarked, flicking his nose ring with his tongue as he passed Neil a "Blue Pabst", Neil looking the bottle over as he held it up. "I mean, you wore a TUTU to this, man? That's hardcore not giving a fuck." The moon was high in the night sky, casting faint light on the bonfire at the top of Mount Ebott's northern side, many high schoolers and middle schoolers hanging out for an enormous party as they celebrated like there was no tomorrow on this, the infamous 'Mischief Night', the night before Halloween when you did your worst pranks. They'd been taking turns tossing stuff into the cave, they'd painted on the walls just outside, they were tossing stuff that exploded nicely into the bonfire and whooping in delight...

It.

Was.

AWESOME.

"Party rock is in the hoooouse toniiiight! Everybody just have a good time!" A very lovely-looking girl proclaimed, red hair swaying back and forth as she held her own bottle of Blue Pabst up, grinning cheekily at Neil. "Come on, kid! Take a drink! Live a little!"

"Thanks for inviting me." He admitted. "I've just never done this before. Little...nervous?" He mumbled, taking a small sip, the girl chuckling as she shook her head back and forth.

"Really? C'mon, you can do better than that." The red-headed girl said as Neil's eyes slightly glinted, almost looking golden in the bonfire's light.

"You know what? You're right. And I will." He said. **"Thanks for inviting me!"**

 **(RESET)**

GLUG. GLUG. GLUG.

He chugged the bottle down, the kids all around him punching the air as the red-headed girl gasped in awe at him guzzling the beer down. "Chug, chug, chug, chug!"

"Oh my GOD. You are so much more older and mature than I thought you'd be. Like, I don't know any kids who'd chug one!" She admitted, Neil coughing a bit before laughing, holding up an almost totally-empty bottle of Blue Pabst up.

"You do now!" He laughed. "Gimme another!" He insisted. _**"Party rock!"**_ Neil laughed aloud, the warm liquid surging through his body as he staggered about a bit, hiccuping slightly as another beer got passed to him. Slowly but surely, the night became a blur. He could faintly remember sitting by the bonfire, sitting close to the red-haired girl and all of them singing loudly and vacuously. He could remember peeing off the mountain, fists held high, going "woohoo" as he did so. And he remembered taking the dare...to pee off the edge where that Asian child had vanished.

The tragic disappearance of Qiang Chan had haunted Simsbury for years. Their parents had insisted a monster had tried to take their little girl, but the police simply didn't believe them. But nobody had any evidence that they'd done anything wrong, either. So alas, the town was just left to speculate, many believing the Chans had murdered their daughter or, more likely in most eyes, Qiang had run away or fallen on Mt. Ebott and in their grief, the Chans had concocted a story to try and cope. Many had wanted to stay far, far away from the mountain after that. Many had begun to call it cursed.

But the urge to spit in the face of that so-called curse was great among the kids of Simsbury. And so now Neil was about to drop trou and pee off the very spot where Qiang had supposedly fallen. But as he staggered forward, head woozy and hiccuping slightly, that was when disaster struck. He was literally falling down drunk, they realized. And they realized it too late when he literally fell down, drunk, into the dark abyss below.

The laughter stopped. The music got shut off by a slow, shaking hand. The red haired girl stared at the spot where Neil HAD been, and then, at last...

"...did...we all just...I...did that just happen?"

"...what just happened?"

"...I think we accidentally killed an eleven year old by getting him drunk. That's what happened."

"...shit."

...

...

...

...Neil woke up with a start, and he glanced around, blinking in surprise at the soft red that surrounded him. He was in a very comfortable and cozy bed with a delightful pink, white and red comforter blanket wrapped around him as a gentle goat-like face stared back at him. This odd monster stood quite tall above him, yet her face radiated warmth as he blinked slowly, holding his hands to his face and feeling his cheeks. He then pinched himself on the arm...

"OW. Nope. Nope, not a dream." He said, blinking a bit.

"Good to see you are awake, oh small one." The goat-like monster in the faintly religious attire remarked, giving him a gentle bow. "I am Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins. I must admit, I was shocked to see a boy in a tutu when I went out to see if anyone had fallen in to Mount Ebott. But in truth, you look rather adorable in your little pink ballet slippers!" She admitted, clasping her hands together and giving him a big smile. "I could pinch your cheeks!"

Neil rubbed his eyes, looking her back over before his mouth hung open. "This...this can't be... _wait_."

His blood ran cold. "Miss...Toriel? H-How long was I asleep?"

"You've been passed out for a good day and a half, my child." She admitted with a nod. "You stank horribly, and I had to give you a bath and wash your clothing, but after about 36 hours you've finally woken up! I must ask, though. You smelled like...well, and your breath, er..." She cringed. "I shall be honest. It was pure hellfire. Had you been drinking?"

"Thirty...six...hours?" Neil whimpered, his lip quivering as he clutched himself, a shudder running through his body as his eyes went wide with horror. "I've been away from home for thirty six...no, no, NO, NO NO!" He screamed, covering his face. "No, this can't be happening! This can't be happening!" He shrieked out. "NO! NO, NO, **NO!** "

"My child, whatever is the matter?" Toriel asked, Neil sobbing as he curled up in a ball in the bed, weeping like a madman.

"A day and a half! I'm stuck here, I'm stuck, I'm-oh _no, no, NO_..."

"Child, please. Don't cry." Toriel begged him, Neil slowly turning around, Toriel's arms outstretched as he did the only thing he could and sobbed into her chest, letting her soft warmth embrace him along with her arms, and letting the crying come naturally as he got it all out. He cried for what seemed to be a long, long time, Toriel gently stroking his soft blond hair, the texture like cotton as his open wails began to turn into pitiful whimpers, and then faint sniffles.

"It's alright." She said. "It's alright. I'm here for you. I know we do not have much. But we can have a good life here. I promise."

And in truth, Neil wanted to believe that. And for what seemed to be a long, long time, he DID believe it.

Toriel was a good cook, and he would often return from exploring the ruins to the delightful scent of butterscotch pie and monster candy that was freshly made, Toriel's warm smile always at the ready alongside them. Her presence in the doorway of his new home was a constant after every trip he took out into the ruins, easily learning how to handle the monsters there. From the Froggits to the Whismuns, from Loox to the Vegetoids, Neil grew more and more comfortable with the Ruins and what it had to offer.

At night, Toriel and he would dance, he showing off his ballet moves for her, she clumsily trying to imitate them whilst he, in turn, tried to learn how to waltz. Because, as Toriel put it, 'A good waltz is always classy'. After all, it had been the dance for her and her husband at their wedding. "Remember, when you have your other in your arms, there's only three things that exist." Toriel had said on one particular night as she took Neil's hand, another hand resting on his side as she gave him a sage nod. "You. Them. And the WALTZ." She proclaimed, before they swept across the living room in broad strokes, a big ol' grin on both their faces.

Yet after two months of this, Neil kept finding himself going to the overlook that peered over the remnants of "Home", the old capital of the Underground. The old home of the monster kingdom was nigh abandoned, and it seemed to stretch out for ages, yet in truth, he'd explored every nook and cranny with Toriel, and now the ruins felt incredibly small to him. It was like being away at a summer camp out of state. At first it had seemed too different and exotic, then he'd been fascinated with all that there was to explore. Yet now?

Now he wanted more. And so he quietly sat on the ledge, looking out over the stretched-out city before him, turning slightly to the left as he saw a toy knife lying on the ground.

For a moment he considered picking it up. For a moment, he found himself wishing the knife was real. He was getting so bored.

So...

So very bored.

But no. Neil just sighed and shook his head, before he took notice of a froggit that was hopping towards him. "Oh, for..." He grunted. _"Get lost!"_ He threatened, shaking his fist at the froggit, who stupidly stared.

It was hard to take Neil seriously. He had taken to wearing the tutu almost all the time, being the only thing that still connected him to his old life. The froggit just blinked a bit, tilting its head to the side, before Neil grabbed the toy knife and threw it. It bopped the frog-like monster on the head with a PA-PLUNK, the froggit letting out an "OW" and hopping off, wincing as the knife plopped back down on the ground, Neil finding an odd satisfaction rising him him. There had just been something kind of funny and enjoyable about whacking the froggit right in the middle of the head with that knife. Maybe he should throw more things at them more often, he mused to himself before he sighed.

"I'm just wasting time." He muttered as he made his way back towards home, Toriel standing in the doorway, seeing his sad face. "Oh, dibbun. Please, tell me. Whatever is the matter?"

"I'm just...tired." Neil mumbled. It was true, but not in the way she thought. "I think I'll take a nap." he murmured as he made his way back to his room, sighing as he plopped into the bed, looking over at the photo frame on the bureau not too far from him.

It was then that he faintly noticed something in the light. You could, if you stared just right, see something. See that the frame wasn't empty. The photo had just been turned around to show its blank side.

Blinking in surprise, Neil got out from the bed and carefully pulled the photo out of the frame, turning it around. It revealed a bearded being similar to Toriel, a cute little kid with a striped yellow and green longsleeve shirt that was obviously the same species as Toriel and her apparent husband, and-

Wait.

Neil's eyes widened. The last person in the frame, standing next to the young child monster, was a human with brown locks, rosy little cheeks, and a pair of dark eyes. Almost...black eyes. Neil wasn't sure, but there was something about the face that didn't seem quite right. It was as if the person staring back with that cute little smile on their face was just imitating what a child was meant to look like, yet despite their well-toned face and cuddly appearance, there was something still "off" about them. It was like looking at a zoo exhibit. From behind the bars of the cage, a tiger was glaring out.

"Greetings." A voice rang out.

Neil turned around. That same child was there, with that same cute little smile on its features as it extended a hand. "I'm Chara." The girl said. "You'd like to exit the ruins, wouldn't you? I can show you how."

Neil stared at this, mouth slightly agape as Chara tilted her head and blinked slightly. "Well? I thought you want to go home? I can show you how, so would you like to join me? I was waiting for someone with a SOUL that was close enough to my own to finally awaken me."

"Well...of course I wanna go home." Neil said quietly, looking this 'Chara' girl over. "I miss everything I had. I miss my dad and the autumn leaves of New England and being popular and the kids liking me."

"I can get you out. But we're gonna need some things. First thing's first...it's been a while since I was down here. Don't know how much time's passed, so tell me..." Chara began, looking out into the hallway, then turning back to Neil with a polite smile.

 _"Where are the knives?"_

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

 **Whenever I'm feeling down or blue, I try to hunker down and write. It helps me out immensely to work through feelings that assault me. And as such, this particular chapter, you should know, was written when I was VERY depressed, shortly after losing my second job at Stop and Shop and feeling trapped, stuck in a dead-end job with no way out. It indulges in the Genocide path of Undertale, and as such, I warn you all.**

 **THE NEXT CHAPTER IS GOING TO GET _DARK_. **

**I do, however, want to bring something up. I never saw any of the kids who fell down, not even Neil, as being bad kids like Chara. They're all just doing what they think will get them home, or what they think they have to do to protect others. Chara's the only one who was motivated by selfishness, exploiting the family and friends who loved him to hurt innocents and restart a war. Regrettably though, Neil's own soul is far too close to hers because of how easily he manipulates his own ability to get what he wants. He's the most selfish out of all of them. It doesn't make him bad. He's just flawed.**

 **One more thing. I had been trying to show that the monsters could be just as bad, if not more so, than the humans they didn't like. This is the first time I'm showing a human acting like a real monster. Too often Undertale stories put all the onus of blame on the humans, and gloss over what the monsters did and are capable of. Too often, Frisk is the only good human on display in the stories. I wanted to do something different.**


	4. Collecting Dust, Pt 2

**Author's Note:**

 **TRIGGER WARNING. There is quite a bit of violence and gore in this chapter. I get close to the Genocide route and explore much of it within this entry. So be forewarned..there's a lot of death. A lot of horror. And all at the hands of a child. Still, I wanted this story to be able to reach people on an emotional level the same way the game did, and hopefully I've succeeded.**

* * *

Neil couldn't believe it. He was staring at a ghost. A full, real ghost. Passing his hand through Chara's chest and removing it, he looked his own palm over, glancing up from it to Chara's face as the young girl gave him a look. "You're...really a spirit?"

"Yes, and you really want to leave, don't you? So we'll need a real weapon." The evidently Greek-American girl said, folding her arms over her chest as Neil bit his lip and peeked out into the hallway. "Is Toriel in?"

"She's currently in the living room, I think. Reading a book on the usefulness of snails."

For a brief moment a snicker passed up from Chara's face, but then it faded and was replaced with a kind of smug amusement. "Well isn't that cute. But we can get past her. She can't see me. Only you, who have awakened me, can." Chara explained as she put a hand on her own chest, over the green shirt she wore, a singular yellow stripe running across it. Neil nodded nervously, making his way through the hall and past the living room.

"Do you, er, mind if I...like...get something from the fridge?" Neil asked Toriel as she sat in her plush yellow chair by the fireplace. Sure enough, she was reading "72 Uses for Snails". Snails had 72 uses and 99 problems. Being tasty, however, wasn't one.

"Oh, of course." Toriel remarked, Neil finding another question bubbling up from inside him.

"Maybe a chocolate bar? You seem to have a lot."

Toriel briefly stiffened, her eyes looking down and to the right as her hands slightly shook, her tone becoming quiet and sad. "That's funny, that-that's...you know, she used to love chocolate." Toriel mumbled out, her eyelids slightly closed as she mournfully murmured. "I'd always have a fresh bar for Chara every day because she said her old mommy never let her have any. So old Goat Mommy always was happy to provide..."

"That sounds great!" Neil said, entering the living room and for a moment, it looked like he was going to reach for the refrigerator, but then Chara's voice whispered in his ear again.

"The knives. Get a knife." She insisted.

Neil blinked a bit, wishing Chara's voice didn't make him feel all squiggly and wriggly inside as he opened up the kitchen utensil drawer and took out a kitchen knife, hiding it behind him in his pants, careful not to let it stick out as he then peeked into the refrigerator. Taking out a chocolate bar, he munched away, enjoying the creamy, rich taste as he walked out of the kitchen and past Toriel again. "Goin' out!" He remarked cheerily, Toriel quietly staring into the fire, as if miles away.

"Ahh, for the days I could eat chocolate. But there's much to do." Chara remarked as Neil walked down the long purple hallways of the ruins before Chara stopped him at the entryway to another hall, a Modsmal off in the distance. The little blobby would-be jello imitation was evidently trying to talk to a a rock, thinking it was another Modsmal. Hey, nobody ever said the things were bright. "Now, you need to gain EXP to increase your power. To increase what the RESET can do."

Neil felt hope swell up inside him. "Did...did you say "increase" my RESET? How?" He asked quietly, Chara putting a hand on his shoulder as she leaned in.

"Your RESET rises with the more EXP you gain. And you gain EXP from slaying monsters. The more you destroy, the further back in time you can go with your RESET."

"How do I know you're telling the truth?" Neil asked, looking accusingly at Chara as he took out the knife, glancing over at it, surprised at how oddly heavy it felt. "What if it doesn't work that way?"

"When you pass on and become so much more, you learn things. You can see as Gods do. If you want proof...just kill a few of these stupid blobs. You'll feel the power they provide you. Then, attempt to RESET, and the results will be clear." Chara reasoned with that same calm, polite, cheery little smile on her features. "Come on. They're just blobs."

Neil looked up at the Modsmal as it kept "talking" to the rock, biting into his lip. "...just a few?" He murmured. "You're sure?"

"Yes."

Neil then quietly nodded, inching his way towards the Modsmal, holding the knife up. He flinched a bit as he held it up, the squishy little blob turning around. Had it eyes, it would have blinked in surprise as Neil brought it down, and it sliced into the jello-like flesh of the thing, making it let out a "SQUORCH" and a faint gargling series of gasps as if someone was drowning in chocolate pudding. The horrific noises made Neil drop the knife, just watching foul white, almost milky blood spraying out, the Modsmal trying to crawl away, half-segmented as Chara shook her head.

"Finish it off. You cannot increase your EXP without actually turning them to dust. That's all they're really made of in the end."

Neil in desperation raised his foot up. The ballet shoes came down again and again as he grit his teeth, the Modsmal turning into dust that settled on the floor and slightly on his shoes as he blinked in surprise, panting a bit. Somehow, that had felt...

Satisfying. Oddly, oddly satisfying. He did actually feel a bit better. A bit stronger somehow. He looked himself over, an odd tingle rising in him as Chara nodded in approval.

"You see? I guess you'd better forget the knife for the moment. You're so much better with your feet. Your ballet's given you strong legs. Use them." She reasoned, gesturing at his feet and smiling.

"They're just blobs, right?" Neil reasoned, as he saw another Modsmal approaching, drawn by the sound of one of its kin calling out. Putting the knife away, he leapt through the air, legs held high as his feet came down, and the squishy, sqelching sound that echoed through the hall, cutting off a life, made him grin in delight as he felt a wave of exhilaration run through him. He was going to RESET. He was going home.

Over the next hour, Neil kept sneaking up on Modsmal after Modsmal, squashing and stomping them one after another. Others went sailing through the air, expertly kicked by the precise footwork of the male ballerina as the blonde-haired, blue-eyed little angel danced about the halls. With the expert poise you could have seen on a Broadway play, he smoothly moved across the purple floors of the Ruins, feet finding the flesh of every little Modsmal he could find.

And soon, he was rewarded. For he could feel a rush, an immense, powerful feeling that was similar to a surge of caffeine rising in him, and as he looked himself over, Chara nodded sagely, giving him a slight bow. "You're ready. Do it." She said. "Your LV has increased, and with it, your RESET. It is almost dinnertime now, so tell me. What were you doing, say...two days ago?"

"I was walking towards the house, Toriel said she was going to try to serve pasta for the first time." Neil remembered, Chara giving him a grin as she held her hand up.

"Go on. Give it a try. It's easy as one. two. three." She said, snapping her fingers.

Neil took in a deep breath. "Right. Easy as **ONE. TWO. THREE**."

 **(RESET)**

"What do you think?" Toriel's voice rang out, Neil now standing in front of the large black tree in front of her home as she rubbed the back of her neck. "I know I've never done pasta before, but I want to give it a try."

"Oh, oh yes! Just be sure to add a pinch of salt or it won't taste as good. Just a pinch." Neil said quickly, nodding his head as his joy began to bubble up from within him. He eagerly rubbed his hands together, Chara's spirit standing behind him with a big grin on her face that was even larger than his as Toriel entered the house. "Oh holy crap! It-it worked! I went two days into the past!"

"The more your LV rises, the more you can go back in time. At LV two, you can go back two days. Let's see how far back you'll go at three."

"More Modsmals, then?" Neil asked of Chara as she shook her head.

"No, they're alright, but you need something with more EXP. Perhaps some..." She rubbed her chin. "I have it. The eyewalker family. Looxes."

"Wait, c'mon, I can't really do that!" Neil said, looking slightly worried. "I mean, it's one thing to beat up a blob, but the Looxes talk and have cute little horns and remind me of Mike from "Monsters Inc"!"

"Don't you want to go home?" Chara asked, looking confused. "I've not steered you wrong. Everything I said happened. If you can get enough EXP, you can RESET, and return to Simsbury. You'll be home again. Don't you want that? Aren't you tired of being trapped down here in the ruins, doing the same thing day after day?"

Neil looked down at his dusty shoes, cringing as he quickly took them off and shook the dust off, nodding. "Yeah, yeah, you're right. If I do this, none of it'll matter, right? I mean, it'll be like I never fell down here and killed 'em. So it's not a big deal."

Chara nodded sagely. "Exactly. So go ahead, let's get some dinner. Then tomorrow, we can have an entire day devoted to raising your EXP. There's a lot of work to do. Are you with me on this, Neil?"

She held out a hand. And though he half-expected to phase through it, Neil took it, finding it was oddly tangible as he shook it eagerly, Chara closing her eyes and beaming at him.

"You're a great partner."

...

...

...

...it wasn't long before Neil had quickly become an expert at dispatching monsters. The ruins were no longer a real threat to him in the slightest, and he was soon coming home every night, shaking the dust off his clothes as a kind of faint golden glow filled his eyes. Be it Froggit, Whimsun, Modsmal, Loox, Migosp or Vegetoid, none could stand up to him. His level had grown to, according to Chara, Four. And now he could go back in time up to two weeks.

But he'd been down there for two months. He needed to gain more power, and Chara had a very simple solution. He needed to escape, and get out. To fight more worthy monsters who could give him more EXP, more power in his RESETS. Chara had naturally wanted him to fight Toriel.

And naturally, Neil had said "no".

" _NO_." Neil remarked, mouth agape as he stared at Chara in shock. "I mean, _really_? You want me to-she's not some stupid monster, Chara! She's been nothing but nice to me!"

"Her husband is the reason why monsters want to attack you to begin with. And she won't willingly let you leave. Not after the many days you've spent with her. She won't let you go."

"I don't believe you." Neil said, shaking his head back and forth. "She'll let me out. I know she will." He murmured, shaking his head back and forth as he exited the room and went into the living room. "Toriel, how do I actually leave the ruins?"

Toriel immediately went even paler than usual. "Wh-why would you want to leave? Aren't you happy here?" She asked, her face filled with dread and worry as she shook it back and forth. "Haven't-haven't I been a good mother to you?"

"Toriel, you-you've been amazing." Neil remarked quietly. "I just want to leave. I can't stay here forever, you know."

Toriel bit into her lip and she glanced downward...nothing something. Noticing something on his shoes that she hadn't noticed before. Something that Neil had neglected to get rid of. Dust. A thick, thick layer of dust on the bottom of his shoes which was still visible enough to see. It had stuck to the bottom, almost utterly sunken in. The dust at the top Neil had continuously knocked off, but below? Below had slipped his mind.

She felt a chill rising in her, seeing the almost unnatural glow in his eyes as she stood up. "I, er, should...take care of something. Be right back." She said, racing out of the room, her voice clearly terrified as she bolted for the stairway leading down, Neil making his way after her. He crept along the long, dark purple corridor before finally seeing she was in front of an enormous regal doorway, her body shaking slightly before she turned around.

"Y-You're...you've been killing monsters." She whispered, her voice hoarse and terrified. "All this time, killing monsters. Why didn't you tell me?" Neil suddenly realized she knew what he'd been doing and he nervously gulped as Toriel felt real, genuine anger rise in her. "You...why would you not tell me? Why would you do something like this?"

"I just want to go home, Toriel. Let me out." He said. "Please."

"I can't." She said, shaking her head back and forth, Neil holding his fists at his side as they shook, and he could faintly feel Chara's hand on her shoulder. "Don't you understand that you'll die out there?"

"Just-just STOP that! I can handle myself! I've gotten more powerful than you think, Toriel! I'm really, really strong now! REALLY strong! And I can beat anyone!" He began to yell. "I WILL beat everyone! Now get outta the way! I wanna go home!" He screamed, lashing out at her, fist flying.

It stuck her hard, and she knocked all the way back, back, breaking the door open with a horrific shudder as Neil gaped in surprise, Toriel's face now horrifically cracked, as if like a mirror as she gave him a foul, horrid smile that didn't suit her sweet features. "You...hate me that much?" She whispered out, a sickening laugh rising out of her mouth, deep and throaty and unnatural as her voice became high-pitched and mocking. "And here I thought you wouldn't last out there! You! **You really are just like the others!** " She laughed and laughed and laughed...

Before she shattered away into nothing but dust, a faint brief white heart visible before Neil's eyes before it broke into pieces as he gaped in surprise. And then it hit him, an even greater rush of pure power, an experience that made him fall to his knees, eyes wide as he gripped himself. The experience was erotic to him, his mouth hanging open as Chara smiled and clasped her hands together. "See? Was that so bad?"

"I feel so...strange." Neil whispered, slowly rising up, feeling all over his body. "So tingly and...so good..." He murmured. "I don't understand. How does it feel so good?"

"Real power. That's what you're experiencing, Neil. Soon you'll have the power you need to RESET fully, to the beginning." Chara explained, spreading her arms wide as Neil glanced back at her. "Come on. We've got a big, wide world out there." She intoned, Neil heading for the exit with Chara's spirt fading from his sight. He pushed the doors open, finding a snowy path before him and yet...

He wasn't cold. Not one bit. In fact, he felt more warm, confident and happy than ever. He held his head high as he made his way down the path, grinning in delight as he sauntered through the dark woods. The power of RESET flowed through him and he knew, he knew nothing could stop him.

Soon, that thought would be tested. Because what soon hopped in front of him along with some of its sunglasses-wearing friends was an odd, faintly draconic, faintly bird-like thing with a big ol' beak and facial feathers that looked like a snowflake. It glanced back at its friends before hopping forward a bit and clearing its throat.

"So, um...hi! I'm Snowdrake. These are my friends. And it's "ice"...to meet you!"

"..." Neil stopped dead in his tracks and slowly raised a blonde eyebrow up. Snowdrake laughed nervously, turning back to his green-feathered friends with a chuckle.

"Wow, talk about a frosty reception!"

"Permit me to be somewhat "cold", but...your jokes are terrible. Oh, and your name is a pun." Neil added, Snowdrake blinking slightly.

"Whaddya mean, what're you-"

Then he stiffened up, eyes widening slightly before he bounced up and down. "That's! Not! Funny!" He yelled out, snow shaking off the nearby trees as he gnashed his beak, his friend Chilldrake cringing. "NOT! FUNNY!"

"Hey, dude, c'mon, he ain't worth it-"

But then Neil struck. He twisted his body and his leg shot forth, slamming into the side of Snowdrake's head, knocking him into Chilldrake as the two went flying through the air, crashing into a nearby guard post. It tumbled down in a mess of wood and snow as they howled in agony, Neil racing towards them and leaping into the air, deciding to do a one-man re-enactment of the classic holiday opera "The Nutcracker". In more ways than one.

Soon enough, Neil was cheerily walking further down the road, humming a merry little Christmas tune as he kept on trekking. Chara walked alongside him, giving him a calm nod. "I really must say, it's good to see you are truly getting into the...spirit of all this." She intoned with a small little chuckle as Neil caught sight of what appeared to be a tiny little snow-man like thing with an icy cap atop its head. Something so small that Neil immediately bolted for it.

"Ooh! Someone's finally paying attention to me!" Ice Cap proclaimed, its little stubby hands held to its cheeks as Neil raced towards him. "I'm POPULAR!" He proclaimed.

Seconds before he was punted through the air like a football, Chara tilting her head slightly to the side. "Wow. That must have been fifty feet."

"NFL contract here I come!" Neil proclaimed, bouncing up and down as he giddily grinned, and made his way towards the lights of the town off in the distance. Oh, this would be fun!

Indeed it wasn't long before screams echoed out over the icy plains of Snowdin, and Sans groaned as he turned over in his bed, rubbing his eyes. He yawned as he made his way down the steps, his brother still fast asleep in his own bed as the tubby skeleton opened up the door and glanced around. **"what's all the fuss about?"** He mumbled.

His smile faded almost instantly. Now pure anger darkened his face. For there was dust scattered across the houses, remnants of clothing in tatters on the ground from discarded scarves to sweaters, footprints that were clearly trying to run for their lives quickly halted in place. And a singular pair of footprints were making off towards Waterfall.

Sans gripped the door frame so tight he almost broke it in half, as he felt his body shake and shudder. He slowly made his way towards his room again, focusing intensely. All of time and space seemed to fade into black around him for a brief moment, and then, just like that, he stood before her. Before the Head of the Royal Guard, the Great Hero.

 **"we've got a problem."** He told her as she looked up from the spear she was polishing. **"...a human."**

She blinked a bit, looking intrigued, until the next words came out of his mouth.

 **"and Snowdin is just gone."**

She almost dropped the spear right there. But instead, she clutched it more tightly, and pure fury began to rise in her.

"What's he look like?" She growled.

...

...

...

... "Yo! Hey!" Neil yelled out, punching his fist into his palm as a muscular half mermaid, half horse creature began swimming for it's life, bolting off for the dark recesses in the distance as Neil grinned darkly. "Come on back! Don't you want to do a flexing contest with those big, beautiful arms? My arms vs your legs! Come on, I'll let you have a REAL close look, Aaron!" He laughed, the laughter echoing through the caverns, off the echo flowers. Their laughter filled the darkness as Neil grinned and twirled about, arms held out as his eyes became filled with delight.

He had never, ever, felt as good as he did right now. He'd been cleaning the clocks of every single monster he encountered, and it felt gooood. His first encounter had been a stubby little monster with a square-like head and body, a little round face shield in one hand that was evidently a kind of living sponge, and a cute widdle "bird" in its head as it glared darkly at Neil. "Your SOUL is...unclean. Unclean!" It had whispered, in a tone that had made Neil feel a shudder go down his back for some reason. He wasn't sure why, but the pure, absolute disgust in that thing's voice had struck deep into his heart.

So he, in turn, had struck back in return, and kicked Woshua into the wall, a few more powerful strikes turning the cleaning-obsessed monster into the kind of dust it would have loved to pick up. "Isn't it ironic...don't you think?" Neil remarked, his eyes almost red with an odd delight as he turned, seeing a quivering form hiding in the corner, hands covering her fishy head, the rest of her body like a mermaid's as her almost seaweed-esque hair got matted with more sweat. Neil could hear her muttering her terror as he walked towards her. "Hey, who're you? You a "boss monster"? I need to fight boss monsters! You look tough." Neil demanded as she turned around.

He immediately regretted it. It appeared as though her head wasn't actually connected to her body. This "Shyren" was like a fish on top of a mermaid's body, the seaweed that was her hair thick and heavy, almost obstructing her eyes as she whimpered in fear at the sight of the human in the dusty tutu and ballet shoes. Neil frowned. "Well? Say something!"

"I...I'm Shyren. I...I'm not a boss monster." She said, her tone warbling, like someone speaking underwater. No, like someone singing underwater. Badly. And off-key. And very loudly.

"AGH!" Neil yelled out, clutching his head as he cringed. "Shut up!" He snapped, fist flying through the air. He punched her head clean off as it sailed through the air, dissolving along with the rest of her body as he looked down at his hands, breathing heavily, laughing a bit. He was on a rush that seemed to have no end, and Chara walked over to him, smiling in delight, eyes big and deep as she clasped her hands together.

"Oh, you're truly a great partner. We're going to have so much fun together." She said with a broad smile.

And so now Neil stood triumphant in the center of Waterfall, its inhabitants trying desperately to escape him as he held his head and fists high. "HA! How you like me now?! **NOBODY can beat me!** " He proclaimed.

"Oh I dunnno about that." A voice rang out.

THA-THULK. The magic spear struck its mark, and he flopped onto the floor, gasping in surprise, clutching at his chest, feeling the agony. There wasn't any blood, this wasn't a physical attack. No, his SOUL had been speared through, and he felt like his insides were on fire. He gasped and cringed, slowly turning around, seeing an armored, fishy-headed monster glowering coldly at him with eyes like gold, and piercing black pupils darker than even Chara's own eyes.

"You...hateful...little...brat." She whispered, Neil realizing that he had to do something. The world was going dark and cold. "I'm going to rip you into so many pieces for what you've-"

 **(RESET)**

" **NOBODY can beat me!** " He proclaimed, stepping to the side, and then slowly turning around with a grin to face the knight down. "Not...even you."

"How in the-how did you know?!" She growled out, clenching her gauntleted fists, her face furious and cold as she held up another magical spear.

"Lemme guess. You're a "Boss Monster"?"

"I'm Undyne! Head of the Royal Guard! And you're the enemy of everyone's hopes and dreams!" Undyne proclaimed as she spun the spear around in one hand before rushing forward. "PREPARE TO DIE!"

Another spear through the chest. Another **RESET**. But now there was something very noticeable that Neil couldn't ignore. That agony, that pain remained. Physical attacks had always faded away. But now he realized that the damage from magical ones somehow lingered on, leaving a scar on his very SOUL. His stomach felt as though someone had lit a bonfire in it as he ducked and dodged, rolling out of the way of Undyne's mighty spear as he panted and heaved, Undyne's face cold and pitiless.

His breath was hard and heavy, Undyne's spear continuously being stabbed in his direction again and again as he tried to dip away from her every strike. She grit her teeth, Neil avoiding her attacks as best he could, her voice full of absolute bile. "My dear friend Alphys's history books made me think humans were _compassionate_!" She screamed at him, Neil gripping the spear as he tried to keep her from sticking him like a pig. "But you? You're a remorseless criminal!"

"I have to defend myself and get ho-"

"Self defense? Don't make me laugh!" She snapped, snorting coldly, the little fins on her head sprayed out as she darkly glowered.

"I just wanna go home!" Neil yelled back. "I gotta kill you guys to get home!"

"Don't you try to lie to me!" Undyne snarled, wrenching it out of Neil's grip, her boot flying up. It kicked him hard in the chest as he flopped to the ground and she raised her spear high, about to bring it down. "You didn't kill all those people because you were afraid. You did it because it was easy for you. Because you _wanted_ to. And if I don't stop you, you'll murder everyone!" Neil let out a cry, gasping in agony as he **RESET** once again, and this time twisted the spear out of her grip, kicking her back. He tossed the spear at her, but she caught it inches from her head, shaking her own head back and forth.

"You really think I wouldn't be prepared if someone tried to steal my own spear?" She asked him. "How dumb do you think I am?! Besides, I can't be hurt by my **own** magic spears! Look!" She yelled out, jabbing the spear into her boot again and again as Neil stared in surprise...before he did the only thing he could think of.

He leapt through the air, knee held high, and it slammed into her face, knocking her down to the ground. She rolled about on the floor, clutching her face as he stepped back and panted, clutching at his knee. Ow. Her face had hurt his knee. What did she eat for breakfast, bricks?! But then she launched another spear at him, and he was sent flying through the air anew, stuck on a spear, falling down, down, off a nearby waterfall and towards the darkness below. He could feel the cold gripping into him with its claws, yet he cringed, Chara's voice echoing in his mind.

"Stay DETERMINED."

 **(RESET)**

Neil clenched his fists.

"Undyne." He whispered at her, his eyes full of pure, absolute anger as she held her spear up in her gauntlered hands. "I'm. Going. To KILL you."

With that, he leapt on her. She held her spear up, but despite her trying to force him back, he clawed across her face, and wrestled her down to the ground, He began headbutting her again and again, screaming in her face. He could feel Chara almost flowing through him like blood as he punched and punched her exposed face, absolute fury filling him.

"Stay Determined. Stay strong. Attack. Fight. No mercy." Chara's voice insisted again and again.

Undyne managed to knock him off. She held her spear up, as other magical spears launched towards him. But now the knife that Neil had kept with him from all those many days ago would be put to use. Kitchen knife held tightly in one hand, he swerved along the dark cavern floor, his eyes practically glowing as he avoided the spears. He shot forward at Undyne and sliced at her as she leapt back, holding her spear up to block his strikes.

But he was proving to be far, far stronger than she thought. He moved with the possessed fluidity of a demonic snake, and she could barely match him. Something about him was simply inhuman, his face alit with absolute anger. "All I wanted was to go home! RESET back to where I belonged! But no! NO, because of monsters like you, I can't! Well I'm gonna kill you and when I get tough, things are gonna be SO much different!' He roared. "SO much different! Nobody is ever, ever gonna hurt me again like they keep trying to!" Neil screamed, the knife whizzing through the air as he sliced and slashed again and again. "Nobody! NOBODY, do you hear me!" He roared.

And with that, the knife found its way into Undyne's neck. She gasped, Neil panting slightly as she clutched at her throat, panting and heaving, her entire form turning squiggly and twisting about as Chara grinned in delight. "Yes. Now you've got her."

"So much...stronger than I thought. But I. I won't die. I. WON'T. DIE." She gasped out, shoving him back as she began to laugh and laugh and laugh. Dark lines stretched from her one good eye, rising up from the top and down to the bottom. Her armor became even darker and spikier, as heart insignias became emblazoned on her gauntlets and across her chest, and an almost unnatural, fierce, piercing light shot out from the eyepath across her left eye. "A true hero has appeared." She whispered. "I've a burning feeling inside. A burning feeling that WON'T let me die. This isn't just about monsters anymore. Monsters. Humans...for everyone's hopes and dreams...I will fight. I can feel them all inside me. We all have one goal. I, Undyne...will strike you down!" She roared out, holding her spear high as it sizzled with power, Neil panting heavily as he held the knife up before him, feeling Chara by his side.

"You're not alone." She insisted. "We can take her. Don't show her any mercy."

Undyne held her spear up, letting out a roar. Spears manifested in midair with a bright glow, shooting forth from nothingness at Neil as he ducked and swerved to get out of the way. Though a few of the spears sliced through his arms and shoulder, he launched himself at Undyne and sliced at her armored form. She frowned at this, knocking him back before she spun her spear around and around. Neil gasped, as spears popped up all around him in a circular fashion, and he barely leapt away to avoid getting stuck from all sides. He sliced at Undyne again before her fist slammed into his face, making him go flying through the air as he fell close to the edge of the platform he stood on, almost about to fall into the water as he cringed, slowly rising up.

"When I was young, I was stupid and reckless. Probably a lot like you...minus that stupid little tutu. I'd go around beating people up. But that was because I wanted to be like my heroes." Her voice intoned pitilessly. "I wanted to be strong to protect people. You..." She shook her head. "You don't care about that. I owe it to the ones I love to protect them. And to end you. Even if you are a kid."

He barely avoided her strike, her kick knocking him off onto another platform as he managed to crawl up in time. His knife deflected her strikes as she brought the spear down again and again, the light shooting off from beneath the eyepatch she wore, cackling coldly. He kept deflecting the strikes before rolling away, then bounding through the air, his knife slashing at her once again. She cringed at this, the two facing each other, weapons held up as they shot forward, Undyne trying to clothesline him. But no. Neil had seen them a thousand times over and over, and he knew when someone was trying to hit him with one, and he avoided it with ease. He ducked just in time and shoved his knife forward, the knife stricking the chest plate once again. It was beginning to shatter and crack, and with this last strike, the armor was now in pieces. Twisting his body, his foot struck her in the chest to knock the surprised Undyne back as he launched his knife through the air...

It struck her now-exposed chest, mouth slightly agape as Neil shot forward and grabbed hold of the knife. He knocked her to the floor, the knife held high as he brought it down again and again and again, Chara grinning in pure delight, her smile going wider with every downward slash. But then he stopped as he saw Undyne's smile...and saw something he had never seen before.

She was melting.

Undyne's voice was soft and contemplative as she spoke, her scaly flesh beginning to melt away in disgusting little chunks as her form quivered and shook. "So even **that** power wasn't enough. Heh. Heheheheheh. If you think I'm gonna give up hope, you're wrong." She said. "Cuz I've got my friends behind me." The head of the Royal Guard whispered.

Her form was melting putty. Her hands were sticky like her chest and stomach, Neil half-sinking into her body as it dissolved beneath his form, his mouth gaping, eyes wide with horror, dropping the knife to the side. "My...my dear Alphys. By now she's called Asgore and told him to evacuate the Underground. To get everyone as far away from you as possible. He's taken one of the souls already, and he's gone up to the surface to get the rest we need to all break free. This world...will live on..." She whispered.

And with that, her body fully dissolved away into dust, Neil now lying in a puddle, looking down at his hands, his body shaking. He shivered and cringed, mouth hanging open, as the milky blood and dust and...stuff...dribbled off his hands.

"Her own Determination meant nothing compared to yours." Chara said with a big smile. "You're getting more and more powerful, Neil. Not even their greatest warrior can match you. Aren't you proud, partner?"

And then Neil _screamed_. And screamed and screamed and screamed, rubbing over his body, dipping his hands into the water around him as he howled. "DIRTY! Dirty, dirty, dirty, so DIRTY!" He gasped out, his voice filled with pure and absolute terror and disgust. "Unclean, filthy-never be clean, never, EVER be clean again..." He whispered, Chara blinking slightly in surprise.

"I don't understand why you're so upset. You've won. You're victorious. Let's go on. With your power, you can erase this pathetic world. And let's move on to the next one with your-"

 _"I'm covered in her pieces!"_ Neil screamed. "COVERED in her! I-I fell through her body! I'm SITTING in her!" He shrieked out. "Oh God, oh GOD, _oh GOD!_ " He howled.

"You don't have to worry. You're strong enough to do anything."

Neil slowly turned and looked at Chara. He stared for what seemed to be a long time. Blue eyes into black. Eyes that he was now realizing were so...so inhuman. So...empty.

"...I'd rather feel disgusting than **empty**." Neil finally spoke, his voice quiet and broken as he shook his hung head. "I'd rather hate myself than feel nothing. And you don't really feel  anything, do you? You're not a person anymore. Do you know what you are? I can't believe I never saw this before, but do you know what you are?" He asked, his tone becoming accusing as Chara's voice became almost ethereal, foul, like someone stepping on a human face over and over until it went CRUNCH and couldn't make any more sounds.

"I eradicate all enemies and become strong. I am the demon that comes when people call my name."

"No." Neil said. "You're nothing but a sad, pathetic little girl who can only feel power when she's hurting others. And you're also insane." Neil said, shaking his head back and forth. Chara's face turned cold. Even colder than Undyne's had as her mouth became a taut line, her eyes narrowing intensely, turning in dark, burning fires, a foul blackness spreading down from her eye sockets.

"You had no problem joining me in my madness."

"I'm not like you, Chara. Cuz I know when to quit. Or rather, when to just **RESET**." He whispered back.

All of time seemed to turn into a foul, dark blur. A thousand points of light were streaming around him, Chara desperately, futilely trying to keep him from returning to before he met her. "Neil! Wait! You can't do this!" She clung tightly to him, shaking madly, her dark, open eyes now endless pools of black. Her tiny body was shaking madly, her voice cracking, filled with pure and absolute fear as a dozen pasts that could have been and now never would be began to rewind all around Neil.

"Neil, **please!** You don't know what its like! Don't understand what it's  like for people like me!" She begged. " _PLEASE!_ Don't send me back there!" Chara sobbed out, the empty void across her face now filling, filling with tears that seemed to have no end. Neil clenched his fists eyes shut tight, trying to concentrate on that point off in the distance, trying to think of the day it had all gone wrong.

"There's _NOTHING_." She said, her voice now fully broken. "Absolutely _nothing_ there. Don't." She pleaded, her body trembling like a singular leaf on the end of that big, black tree that he could now see behind her, fast approaching...Toriel off in the distance, waiting in the doorway...

"Don't... _please_ , Neil. Please..."

Neil stepped forward, Chara falling behind him, on her knees as she looked up at him, pleading, as he slowly turned around, about to step under the branches of the old tree in Toriel's yard. And he spoke.

"I'm sorry, Chara."

Without another word, he stepped through. And with that...

She was gone.

""Oh, dibbun. Please, tell me. Whatever is the matter?" Toriel called out, seeing how strangely sad and mournful his face was as he slowly looked up at her, pushing past her as he made his way to the stairs, covering his face with his hands. "Neil, please, whatever is wrong?" She asked before seeing he was covered in what appeared to be the blood and dust of monsters and she gazed in shock. How in the world-

"...I'm...so dirty." He muttered. "So...so filthy. Forget me." He whispered. "Forget me. And let me go before I hurt anyone."

Toriel stared there, deep into his eyes. Eyes that seemed to have seen years of pain. Her mouth slightly fell open, her body quivering before, at last, Toriel lowered her head and nodded softly. Giving her a soft nod, Neil made his way down the stairs and soon, out of the ruins.

Sans didn't say a word as he approached. Instead, he held out a hand. And for once in his life, it was a hand that didn't have a woopie cushion.

 **"you look like crap, kid. what's wrong?"** He asked as they stood outside of Snowdin. The town was soft and beautiful, and for a moment, Neil just wished he could stand there in the snow as gentle snowflakes danced around him. Wished he could just lie against the cozy wood walls of Snowdin and sleep as soft Christmas music filled the air and the light from decorated trees faintly illuminated the town with a warm glow. To just drift off into the white of the snow all around him until he couldn't feel anything. But no.

No.

"Can you take me to Waterfall?" Neil asked him. "...I want to see Undyne one last time."

Sans blinked slowly, sighing briefly before he gave a quiet nod, understanding what the child was trying to say. **"How many times?"**

"...I've actually sort of lost count. Like...maybe eight? Nine?"

 **"...alright, kid. I get it. So follow me. I know a shortcut."**

...

...

...

..."Can you swim, Undyne?" Neil asked her, Undyne blinking rather stupidly in confusion.

"Of course I can!" She remarked, shaking her head...before she saw Neil spread his arms wide.

His smile was hollow.

"I never learned."

And with that, he flopped into the water behind him, Undyne gazing on in shock before she found herself racing forward, the world around Neil going so oddly warm and dark. He kept staring up through the water, seeing Undyne staring down at him in surprise, a faint glimmer of horror on her eyes as he kept staring back at her. The water began to fill his lungs as he continued to stare, yet he didn't mind. As Undyne continued to stare at him, scarcely able to believe what she was seeing, Neil finally allowed his eyes to close.

He could feel it all wash away. And he could feel a smile slowly stretching across his face, and feel, despite the waters of the cavern, tears of joy building in his eyes.

He felt clean. At long, long, last. After everything he'd done, he felt clean. Satisfied.

And it was all so warm.

So warm...


	5. My Neighbors are Monsters

**Author's Note:**

 **Unlike in "Collecting Dust", I wanted this chapter to be more lighthearted and sweet. We could ALL use some funny stuff after the recent nasty chapters. So may you all enjoy this touching little chapter on a girl who, thanks to her continued perseverance and desire for progress, makes friends with some very nerdy, dorky monsters!**

* * *

Christa Solomon Lewis's birth had been a blessing for her parents. By all accounts, it shouldn't have been possible. But moving to the town of Simsbury and living in the shadow of Mt. Ebott had allowed a miracle to occur.

In 206X, the town had had quite enough of people falling into Mt. Ebott, never to be seen again. Enough had fallen victim, and there were real, genuine concerns that there might actually be something down in the mountain. The town wasn't quite willing to go so far as to admit real monsters lived in there, but they wanted to observe and examine the mountain full-heartedly, and to make sure that innocent bystanders were kept of it.

To that end, scientists were hired to make the place a highly protected wildlife habitat, and to analyze everything that lay inside the mountain. The place was cordoned off with an immense electrified fence, security cameras placed all around in select locations, and a small little scientific facility was erected by the very cave that Qiang Chan and Neil Elliot had gotten lost in.

A gleaming white and silver sentry on the hill, the Lewis's Mt. Ebott Research Center was ahead of its time. It had the latest in analytic computer technology, finely-tuned radars and heat sensors with even greater radiation detection machines to contribute to the cause of science. This, combined with the passionate desire for research that the Lewis family had, meant that no stone would go unturned at Mt. Ebott. But there was a problem. A personal one.

Heather Lewis had been unable to get pregnant for years on end. She had tried again and again, but her husband Solomon had continued to fail. They'd gone in for test after test, but despite the many gains and leaps forward in technology, the doctors all came back with the same answer. There was nothing they could do, and they had no idea exactly what was keeping her from getting pregnant.

But then, half a year into their analysis of Mt. Ebott, it had happened. Heather had begun throwing up unexpectantly, and soon after, she began getting particular cravings for Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream and smoked steaks in the middle of the night. One pregnancy test later confirmed their hopes: Heather was pregnant, and Solomon couldn't have been more amazed.

When the child was actually born, the first question on their mind was "how". But then an idea began to form after talking to the now very-old Mr. Chan and his wife, who'd finally been cleared of all wrongdoing on behalf of their daughter's disappearance, and asking questions about Neil Elliot from those who remembered him from school. An idea was taking root. Somehow Mt. Ebott had a kind of aura around it that seemed to spur on and foster miraculous things. It had a way of attracting fantastic people to it. There was a kind of charge in the air that seemed unique to Mt. Ebott, an unknown type of energy that they couldn't fully identify on their machines.

They didn't know why, but Mt. Ebott had miracles occuring in its shadow. And they made sure their child Christa knew all about this, and that the child prodigy should treasure the mountain for all it was worth.

And indeed, Christa did love Mt. Ebott. She wanted to know everything about it. Which was why she wanted to test out her theory on "Do monsters live inside"? How cool would that have been?

Her early attempts to find out the truth started primitively.

"HEY!" A young Christa yelled out, eyes closed behind her cloudy glasses as she cupped her hands over her mouth and called out into the dark stretch of inky blackness below her. "HEY! Any monsters down there?"

Silence. She took out her steel-binded notebook and began scribbling in it, the young 8 year old writing "Test results: Negative".

The next result was equally childish. She launched a brick with a note attached to it through the air every day for a good month. One time, she was positively sure she heard a very loud, angry "OWIE" from down below. Nevertheless, results remained, otherwise, negative.

Then at age 9 she got an idea. She'd been in her room, a peach-colored affair with various desks that were loaded up with clutter, sitting in a rotating black chair as she adjusted a broadcasting device. It was honed in to send out signals from anywhere from a half mile to a 2000 mile radius, but she wanted it on the low end. Typing into the keyboard console that was built into the device, with a large, snowball-shaped speaker for her to talk into, she cleared her throat. Well, I say snowball, really it was more of a snow-decahedron.

"Hello?" She spoke out, tapping a finger on the microphone as the screen showed off nothing but a faint blue line that was flat as a board under her own throbbing purple line. She wasn't getting anything back. Sighing a bit, she tapped the microphone again. "Hello? Anybody listening? Can anyone read? Or write?" She added with a chuckle.

Silence. She sighed, rolling the black chair over to the bookcase nearby, picking out her favorite book: "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" by CS Lewis. Her favorite story, all about children who found a realm of fantastic creatures right in their own backyard. Or rather, their own house-

"Did you all hear that?" A voice rang out.

Christa stiffened at once. She slowly looked up from the chapter on Aslan's resurrection, mouth slightly agape at the odd, high-pitched, slightly buzzing, feminine voice that had popped up from the broadcaster. It was actually picking up someone! ACTUALLY PICKING UP SOMEONE. She quickly tossed the book onto her bed, which lay across from the desk she was sitting at, and tapped on her microphone.

"Hello? Hello, I'm aiming the signal directly below Mt. Ebott. Who am I speaking to?"

"Oh! Er, hello there." The definitely female voice remarked, an air of real nervousness about her. "I'm, er, Alphys! I'm a lab assistant here in the Hotlands. Who am I speaking to?"

"Christa Solomon Lewis. I'm nine and I've got an IQ of 165!" Christa remarked cheerily with a big, beaming smile, her happiness at being so smart evident in every chipper little syllable she used. "My parents and I are researching Mt. Ebott. We always wanted to know if the stories were real."

"Oh, we're very real!" Alphys said on the other end. "Er...maybe my boss wouldn't like me admitting that."

"Oh, gee. I'm sorry. I wouldn't want you getting into trouble." Christa admitted apologetically. "Er, is there anything I could do or send down to prove who I am? Or that you could send up?"

"Well, we're able to broadcast this type of radio signal to each other...frankly, I thought I was the only one who knew about this frequency, but maybe if I adjusted it, I could send up a visual electronic signal that would reconfigure itself into-"

"An audio-visual feed?" Christa asked. "So I could see and hear and talk to you like you were on a two-way conference call and stuff?" She wanted to know. "I've been doing that for my Mom and Dad, they're away at Washington for a Congressional meeting. We have to talk by vid-screen." Christa sighed, leaning back in her chair. "It's lonely up here. I've been homeschooled all my life, and no kids have come up here since Mr. Elliot's child vanished. I'm glad to talk to someone else."

Alphys sounded even more nervous as she cleared her throat. "Er, uh, well I could probably clear this kind of talk with my boss. I mean, it's just talking...and we could learn so much about how humans have advanced since we last saw them! Stay on this signal?"

"Of course. I'll keep it open. Can you call again tomorrow? Twenty four hours from now?"

"Ten-four, good buddy!...uh, do people still use that?" Alphys inquired.

"Not really. But I like it." Christa laughed. "Goodnight, Ms. Alphys!"

"Goodnight, Christa. It was nice to talk to you!" Alphys said, evidently hanging up a few moments later as Christa felt pure, unbridled, bubbling joy rise up in her. She leapt from the chair, twirling around in her purple t-shirt, bouncing up and down.

"IT'S ALIVE! IT'S ALIVE!" She laughed uproariously, brown hair getting even messier as she flopped onto the bed, arms sprayed out, picking up the book she'd put down on it and smiling happily at the cover. A beautiful warmth was rising in her as she placed it against her chest and grinned. After so, so long, they'd have proof. Real proof that monsters were real and that they could be talked to. It was everything her and her family had ever wanted.

The next day, Christa had been on edge. Waiting for 5:00 to roll around, sipping on a Mountain Dew, Christa had sat in the black rotating chair, staring intently at the broadcaster. And sure enough, she'd been rewarded for her patience, as Alphys's voice rang out from it, still cutely nervous and worried. "Hello, Christa! Um, I, uh, I'd like to introduce you to...well, ME!" She remarked, the screen adjusting and twisting about as it was turned into a better feed. Now it showed off a faintly lizard-like being with yellow scaly skin, glasses, and a sheepish grin.

Alphys waved a stubby clawed paw in the air before the camera she was broadcasting from, a white labcoat wrapped around her with a cute little kitten-eraser-topped pencil in her front pocket. The lab around her was a lovely greenish/blue color that had various large fridges running alongside the east end, with several jars to the west side in large glass capsules. Inside them floated what appeared to be cartoonish hearts of various colors, faintly visible through a sheet that covered them all.

"My boss will be in with my partner soon en-" Alphys began to say before a low, deep voice rang out.

 **"hey."**

"AAA! Don't DO that!" Alphys said, glowering a bit as she covered her head, shaking slightly as a figure popped up from out of a nearby doorway, wearing a big labcoat and with a cheery smile on his skeletal face. "S-Sorry, th-this is Sans. Sans the Skeleton. He thinks he's a real comedian."

 **"yeah, you can call me the comic...Sans."** Sans remarked, Christa blinking briefly before she began laughing at this, Sans staring in surprise at the guffawing girl on the other end of the visual feed. **"you liked that?"**

"Comic Sans! That's funny! I love it!" She laughed, covering her mouth, giggling a bit as Sans smile, which had seemed like his default appearance, somehow gained a warmth to it as Alphys chuckled a bit herself.

"Okay, okay. Pretty good." She admitted. "Sans loves researching the space time continuum with his brother, who's head of the lab. The boss should be here soon, right?" Alphys asked of the skeleton as he shrugged.

 **"who knows? he said he'd be right out of the bathroom. don't know why he needs to use it."**

"Why do you say that?" Alphys asked, Christa surpressing her sniggering, realizing the joke that was about to be made.

 **"cuz he's a skeleton like me, he ain't got noBODY to GO with."** Sans laughed, and Christa could have sworn she heard a drum sting echo through the air as Alphys groaned and rolled her eyes behind her glasses.

"Oh, Sans, you're incorrigible." She remarked with a sigh before the steely door at the end of the room slid open, and a rather tall form walked in. It was definitely a skeletal monster just like Sans, albeit with an odd, much more haunting face. A line ran from the top of his right eye socket up to the top of his head, another line running from the bottom of his left eye socket down to his mouth. He wore a deep black jacket with a grey undershirt beneath, and strode across the lab floor with an odd, almost unnatural swiftness, his voice faintly discordant and off-putting as he tilted his head. He looked Christa over, speaking directly to Alphys and Sans.

"Is this the human you spoke of?"

"Yes, sir."

"...she's but a child. How old are you?" He inquired, frowning a bit, rubbing his chin in a thoughtful manner.

"I'm nine. But I've got a very high IQ, sir. My parents say I'm a prodigy." Christa remarked, putting a hand on her chest. "Whatever question you wanna know about humans, I'd love to answer, but can I ask you guys some questions too?"

"In the spirit of mutual discovery and cooperation, I think...yes. We'd love to talk with you. Allow me to introduce myself." The tall scientist said as he put a hand on his chest, Christa noticing he had a large hole directly through it. "I am Wing Ding Gaster. Call me W.D." He intoned. "The Royal Scientist, appointed by his Majesty, King Asgore. We've been researching ways to escape the Underground for decades now. But this might be even more helpful!" He remarked, happily smiling and clasping his hands together. "Please, what can you tell us about how human society has advanced?"

"Ooh, wait, wait, since she spoke to me first, can I ask her a question?" Alphys said, waving her hand in the air, hopping up and down excitedly as Gaster gave a calm nod, Sans holding up a bottle of ketchup, which he cracked open and began drinking. Alphys beamed and then held up a notepad, pulling out her pencil as she got ready to write. "So, uh...what can you tell me about these...anime that humans have?"

Christa blinked. "Anime?"

"Well, there's one I really, really like called Mew Mew Kissy Cutie-"

Christa chuckled. "Is that the one where the girl with cat ears can kiss people and make them forget-"

"Oh, yes, it's amazing!" Alphys said, and as she began to talk a mile a minute, Christa just smiled, Sans chuckling at all this before patting Alphys on the back.

 **"deeeep breaths. deeeeep breaths."**

"Hoo. Hoo. Sorry. Just...uh...I really...really like the show." Alphys murmured, wiping her brow as Christa shrugged.

"Personally, my favorite was always Zatch Bell. It was a great manga series. And it lasted waaaaaay longer than the anime did. I didn't like how the translation company never localized the full run, so I had to pirate the manga, but I'm glad I did!" Christa admitted. "I don't know why they didn't do the rest. If people love something, why not let them keep seeing more of what they've loved and followed for so long?"

 **"so, uh..."** Sans spoke up. **"aren't you kinda nervous about talking to monsters?"**

"Why would I be? You guys look like real life cartoon characters! It's cool!" Christa said as more warmth spread across Sans's face. "So, um, Mister Gaster...how come you're named after a font?"

"Well, it's a family tradition." Gaster admitted with a calm nod. "I take it your middle name comes from your father?"

"Yeah, all kids get their dad or mom's middle names in my family." Christa admitted.

"And all of my family has font names. It's a proud tradition going back over 1500 years, in fact." The dark-clothed doctor remarked.

"WD is a classy name." Christa complimented.

"Tell that to our father, Stencil."

Christa grinned. She liked them already.

...

...

...

..."We can't tell anyone?" Christa asked, WD, Sans and Alphys on the monitor as Heather sighed and held her daughter's hand as she sat on the bed with her, Solomon pacing back and forth, beard fruffing up as he shook his head. "Why not?"

"Congress is bitterly divided against the president. Anti-immigrant sentiment is as high as it was in the 1940's, back when we were putting Japanese Americans in camps to make sure they couldn't betray us to Japan." Solomon mumbled, head hung down as he almost spat on the ground. "The idea of an entire other species being welcomed up here? It's political poison. Nobody'll stick up for them if they want to keep their job."

 **"i suppose this is the advantage to having a king in charge. if something needs to get done, he gets it done."** Sans reasoned. **"and nobody minds what King Fluffybuns asks us to do."**

The mood had been dark and cold, Heather and Solomon's jubilation at finding the existence of a whole new race cut tragically in half upon the reminder of political reality. But upon hearing this, they looked up along with Christa at the screen, and a smile spread across the slightly pale-faced Heather's face. "K-King Fluffybuns?" She asked with a slight giggle. "However did he get that name?"

Sans grinned up at his brother. **"ol WD tells it best."** He said as WD Gaster nodded.

"Our king was to make a speech to us. The air was crisp and biting, all assembled below the palace, as we hung on his every word. His darling wife Toriel was fluffing up his resplendant purple robe, giving him a kiss on the cheek for good luck after she'd spoken her piece on current events. Our King had the idea of having monthly addresses, one of his few bright ideas he ever had, for usually Toriel was the brains behind the throne. As she prepared to give him the microphone, she failed to realize it was still left on, and she passed it to him with a smile, the words made clear for all below to hear..."

Gaster took in a deep breath, and then grinned so broadly that even Sans's smile couldn't compare.

"Your turn, Fluffybuns." He said in an almost perfect imitation of a very matronly, feminine voice.

Alphys began laughing, trying to suppress the chortles as Heather giggled. Christa saw her mother look over at Solomon, who was visibly blushing. She understood. Her mother Heather often called Solomon "Fuzzybuns" because, as she said, "He has a fuzzy set of buns" and that she liked to give him static electricity by rubbing them a lot, which made his beard stand out.

"So all of us start laughing uproariously, and when the queen realizes that they'd all overheard, she began laughing too. But when! We all grew silent." Gaster whispered, his eyes narrowing, the lights somehow dimming as Sans held a flashlight up in front of his brother's face to dramatically illustrate his point. "The king stepped forward, face solemn as he held his arms high for quiet. He leaned forward, microphone in hand. His expression stern, he spoke the following words. "Dear citizens...thank you for coming here today. I..."

And then Sans shut the light off, Gaster giving that same big ol' grin.

"KING FLUFFYBUNS..."

And with that, they all burst out into laughter, as Gaster just smiled, Solomon finally wiping a tear away from his eye as Gaster bowed, Sans clapping his hands together. **"thank you, thank you! he'll be here all week! literally. i lost the key to the lab and we can't get out."**

Alphys and Gaster stopped smiling as they wheeled on Sans.

"WHAT?!"

 **"uh, we'll be right back."** Sans said with a chuckle, ending their end of the video feed as Solomon and Heather sat on either side of their daughter, the three of them smiling at each other.

"I must say, I was worried when you told me you'd contacted them." Solomon admitted. "A very real fear burned up within the back of my mind. The fear of "what if they can't be trusted? What if they'll try to hurt us"? But..." He shook his head. "There's a kind of...humanity in them that I'm so glad to see."

"I guess people are all the same, no matter what they look like." Christa realized aloud as her mother ruffled her hair even more and she smiled back. "And I guess this'll just be our little secret for now?"

"Until the day that our government gets a little less divided, then we'd best keep the knowledge of their existence to a minimum." Solomon reasoned with a sage nod. "We'll do what we can to learn from them and see what we can offer in return. I've a good feeling about this, Christa. A really good feeling." He insisted.

And so, over the course of the next few years, Solomon, Heather and Christa Lewis got to know the scientists of the Underground who, in turn, decided to keep their talks with the humans a secret as well. Through the careful installation of cameras in select places and the creation of more broadcast devices, they could now see and talk to each other nearly everywhere they went. From the lab's little cafeteria to by its snack machine, from it's cold storage room to it's power core. From the Lewis's living room to their kitchen, from the facility's laboratory to, yes, Christa's bedroom. The only bedroom that had one. She had insisted, of course, that she get to keep a broadcaster.

Day by day would go by with all of them just talking with each other as they discussed history, current events, and, of course, what humans and monsters did for a living.

"So this is the genetic data of monsters I was speaking of. Isn't it fascinating?" Alphys asked as she clasped her hands together, beaming at Heather warmly as Heather looked over what was put up on the screen, munching on a Cookies and Cream chocolate bar.

"It would appear as though the monster genetic code is made up entirely of a different breed of material than human. I don't think I've ever seen this be-wait." Her eyes narrowed in. The color of the material that compromised the monster's genetic code was so similar to the energy they had traced around Mt. Ebott. The odd aura that surrounded it, invisible to the naked eye. "It's the same color. The same quality and texture, the same little flickers of light within."

"Monsters are made of magic. I guess the mountain's kind of...soaked up the excess we give out?" Alphys reasoned. "Perhaps that's how humans were able to use magic so much in the past. Maybe having monsters around helped to bring out your latent gifts. But now without us up there, having such a gift come out is rare."

 **"you don't drink coffee?"** Sans asked Solomon as he poured himself some hot chocolate in the kitchen, his wife still talking to Alphys in the living room as the bearded scientist shook his head.

"Oh, no. I'm going to take a nap later, and when I drink coffee, I can't sleep."

 **"ah, well, for me its the other way around. when I sleep, I can't drink coffee."** Sans remarked as Solomon almost spat his hot chocolate out, trying not to show how much he was grinning and failing miserably.

Christa, meanwhile, was peeking in on the laboratory in the Hotland's west wing where a bunch of sinks were located. Glancing left and right, thinking he was unseen, Gaster carefully began soaping up his hands under the sink, and then held them up. Looking over what he had in his holey hands, he took a breath, and then blew, as bubbles began to gently float out from the hole in each palm. One after another they floated around him as he shook his head, a big smile on his face.

"Frickin' bubbles." Christa remarked. Only she didn't say "frickin'". Gaster, startled, wheeled about, seeing Christa looking at him from a screen across the way on a nearby table.

"You startled me!"

"I didn't know you liked blowing soap bubbles." Christa admitted as she adjusted her glasses, a slight blush coming to Gaster as he cringed.

"I suppose it isn't very becoming of the man who invented the very machine that helps make modern life possible for monsters, the royal scientist himself, to be...playing with bubbles as if your "Nostalgia Critic" had discovered his delightful inner child again." Gaster apologetically intoned before seeing Christa's big grin.

"Naw. I actually think it's really cool how your hand can do that." She said. "You kinda remind me more of Rob than Doug. Sans is like Doug Walker, he's the one with the wisecracks, you seem so much more reserved and smarter but you've got a hidden soft, sweet side that pops out once in a while."

Gaster rubbed the back of his neck as the bubbles danced around him. "Thank you again for sending us those "Nostalgia Critic episodes". I know it wasn't too difficult to send them over the signal, but you didn't need to. It...says a lot that you're being so kind to us considering-"

"Considering what?" Christa asked as Gaster stiffened and looked slightly away. "Wait, the old legends? Well, they're not really accurate, right? I mean, a lot of old legends aren't totally true, a lot of the truth gets screwed up."

"I'm afraid a lot of it was real. Monsters don't like to admit we were at fault. Our own history refuses to own up to any mistakes we made or how we treated humans. And yours, no doubt, treats our race as...well...monsters!" Gaster sighed, hanging his head and shaking it back and forth as he put his hands in his dark jacket, his tone becoming contemplative. "That's not accurate but...well...there was a legend we had. A prophecy which gave us hope. The idea that an angel from the surface would descend from above, and grant us freedom. We thought at one point a girl named Chara would be that angel."

Gaster paced back and forth, his tone becoming quiet and sad. "The King and Queen loved Chara as if she was one of their own. She and their son, Asriel, became fast friends. The best of friends. They were nigh inseperable, and our kingdom was filled with hope upon the realizationt that perhaps she could be the one to free us all. The idea was that she might be able to break us out, for a human soul is far stronger than a monster one. But...then she became very, very ill. And she passed."

Gaster looked away from the screen as his voice got low and quiet. "Asriel was...heartbroken. But he wanted to fulfill Chara's last request and bring her to...bring her to the golden flowers in her hometown that she loved so much. So he absorbed her soul and...and he carried her body through the barrier. With a human soul in him, and his own monster soul, he could leave but...when he came back...he managed to get out that he'd been attacked. He had...he had these beautiful golden flowers in his paw and..."

Gaster trailed off, Christa realizing what he was getting at. "When did this happen?"

"2012." Gaster mumbled out. Christa began writing down in her steely notebook, finally looking up.

"If...if people really saw him in 2012, then...there'd be some record. I'm gonna look it up. I'm going to go look up Chara. And I want to help you." She said, Gaster slowly turning to look back at Christa, eyes wide.

"You...you would help us be free? Why? Aren't you afraid that we'd hurt you if we got free? King Asgore was so enraged by Chara and Asriel's death, he decreed any humans who came down would die, and that we should-"

"We don't have to fight each other." Christa said, shaking her head as Gaster approached the screen and stared into the soft eyes behind those cloudy glasses. "If my family and you and your brother and your friend Alphys can get along...why can't everyone else? We're as different as it gets and we're just fine. Besides, kids like me LOVE monsters and stuff." She added with a big ol' grin. "We think that kind of thing is cool. Having the kind of creatures we've only read about from our fantasy stories and stuff actually walking around, that'd be like...well, like getting to go to school with Bigfoot or real life aliens! We'd love it!"

"...wait. Tell me of this... _Bigfoot_...?" Gaster inquired with an intrigued look on his face.

And Christa smiled. Oh, how she loved these guys.


	6. Making and Changing History

**Author's Note: I've throughly enjoyed writing all of this, but now I'm giving you a sneak peek of something more to come. Because Bonnie is a real...real special girl. As you probably already guessed. ;)**

 **Now I want to bring one more thing up. Does the Mountain create the special children who fall in, or are they just naturally drawn to it? Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Honestly, I'm not sure. I want to leave that ambiguous. Along with how genuinely good Gaster might be. Or how evil he may be.**

 **People can surprise you...**

 **Monsters included.**

* * *

Christa had been surprised to find her search for information on Chara led her to a church. Opening it up a dust motes floated through the air over a large red carpet, she walked past ivory pews, a girl with long blonde hair speaking to a rather old Asian couple, along with a very sad-looking, slightly more young old man with faded hair who was sitting nearby. They were all in the front row of the church, the girl in the white shirt and pants looking rather dazzlingly brilliant under the light that softly filtered in from a stained glass window of a flower behind her, which in turn also cast light on a suspended statue of Jesus on the cross as the teenage girl looked up, seeing Christa.

"Oh, howdy!" The teen remarked, her accent quite thick and southern as she nodded politely. "I'm Bonnie Hatfield-McCoy. Proud co-owner of this here church you done see before ya. We're all good Catholics here, happy to welcome in anybody who done need a helpin' hand. And I do declare, you look like y'all could use some help." She said as she put her hands on her hips, soft blue eyes looking Christa over as Christa took out her notebook and read off what she'd written.

"Er, yes, I, um...I saw on Youtube that you had put up a video on a certain date. A date around Halloween that showed a tragedy here in Simsbury." Christa said.

Indeed, a scanning of the town paper had not yielded much except that a girl had been found dropped off in the very church she was in, and she'd been identified as one Chara Vardalos, a girl who had run away from home when she was little. But despite her mother and father being surprised and horrified she'd shown up, dead, there'd been little else to go on. Because people's stories had been "confused and mixed, with the police not having any reliable leads due to crazy eyewitness testimony".

Then she'd found the Youtube video. It had been filmed vertically. It was shaky. But it very clearly showed what she wanted. A girl with brown hair in a green long-sleeve shirt with a single yellow stripe through it being carried towards the center of the town to be laid on the golden flower bed...only for people to realize that the "kid" in the "costume" there with his friend? Wasn't a kid. And that his friend was dead. The "costumed kid", the young, goat-like monster with cute little stubby horns and an adorable white face had picked up Chara, racing for this very church, but then a bright light had obscured all, ending the video as people were sent reeling back.

"That ol' goat boy lit up the sky like a firecracker." Bonnie said as she spoke solemnly, looking around at the parents sitting in the pews. "He carried the kid in here, where I'd been filming, and I closed and locked the door. He laid the kid down where I'm standin', and just sat there, staring, holding the kid's hand for what seemed a long, long time." The teenage girl mumbled, head slightly bowed. "I told him it weren't safe to stay in here, he had to get out. I took him out the back way, brought him towards a rear entrance into the Mountain, him bleedin' all the way. Some jerks had shot him."

She flinched. "I kept insistin' on a hospital or somethin', but he refused. Just wanted to get home. He got through this deep old cave, but the openin' collapsed before I could see him on through. And it's been closed off ever since. Only way in now is up where that big ol' science lab lies!"

"That's where I'm from. I've been investigating monsters." Christa admitted, as the Asian elders turned, eyes widening as the other man in the room slowly looked up at her. "And I believe what you saw was one. A monster named Asriel, the prince of the Underground Kingdom."

"You've...you done TALKED to them?" Bonnie asked.

"Over a kind of radio signal, yes."

The elderly American man slowly spoke. "Did...did they ever speak about a boy? A boy with blonde hair and blue eyes? Wearing...wearing a tutu?" He asked.

"Or a little Asian girl with gloves? Orange? Had a black martial arts gi on her?" The old asian woman in the church asked as she gripped her husband's hand so tightly it almost broke.

"I can sure ask. But I don't think they're alive anymore. Their head scientist said that their king kinda ordered any humans that came down to the Underground would die." Christa admitted.

This was the downside to home schooling. Not a lot of tact exactly. The parents looked devastated, Ms. Chan trying not to burst out into tears, Mr. Elliot covering his face as Christa realized that she'd just essentially told these people "Your kids are definitely dead". "I-I'm sorry, I-I can actually ask, they haven't talked a lot about the other humans!" She quickly backpedaled.

Bonnie quietly bit into her lip, turning away from Christa, her hair sweeping slightly as her voice became low and quiet.

"I own this here church with the Chans and Mr. Elliot here. St. Catherine's is a place of comfort and kindness for all who want to find it. But I want y'all to understand something. We believe in Justice. And if this king really did order kids dead, then he has to own up to what he did, you hear?" She quietly inquired, a tone of dangerous fury underyling her words as Christa nervously nodded. "Now if they're not all like him...well, they ain't got nothin' to fear from us. And if they're a-willin' to let bygones be bygones over what happened all them centuries ago, then who am **I** to judge? But you better hope those kids ain't dead. Or we?"

Bonnie slowly turned her head back to Christa as she shuddered. "We're gonna have a problem."

Soon after, Christa had returned back to her home, and was speaking with Gaster and the others as her parents stood near, transmitting the Youtube video she'd gotten to them as they watched in silence, the video finally finishing as Christa spoke up. "I talked to the girl who took the video. She owns the church where Chara's body was taken to along with some parents who...well...they said their kids fell into the cave. Fell down where you are."

Sans now looked away from the screen, Gaster and Alphys staring at him before Alphys nervously broke the tension. "I'll, uh, go get started on that...that thing! That thing we were talking about while you were away!" She said to Christa, barreling off as Gaster sighed slightly.

"Sans, perhaps it would be best to simply admit the truth." He intoned.

 **"...the kids are dead. The kid in the tutu drowned himself. another two got killed."** Sans muttered. **"when Undyne brought that boy in, she was so surprised. she just didn't understand why he'd do that. but I did. he had powers just like the girl I faced before did. and the one before that. dunno why, but something about this place seems to draw special folks. whether its the magic that bathes over it drawing them in like fireflies, or whether its just luck, or something else entirely...but everyone one of 'em that came down here had something unique about 'em."**

"...did you kill those two girls?" Solomon asked softly as Sans stayed quiet for what seemed to be a long time.

"It was Asgore's policy to claim any that fell down put them to death after what happened with his son Asriel." Gaster spoke up, sparing Sans from going further. "We want a different way. If you can help us escape from the barrier, help us with our experiments with the technology you have up there, we could have space and time mastered. We could craft a reality where monsters and humans needn't be enemies. My goal is to essentially...RESET. Go back in time to when the war first started. Stop it before it starts."

"That could do a lot of damage to the timeline..." Solomon murmured. "...ugh." He and his wife clasped each other's hands. "No. No. We agreed. We've got a moral duty to prevent suffering. It's a part of what we are. It's one of the reasons we got into science. If there's even a slight chance that this could create a more peaceful future for both of us, then we have to take it."

"So you want me to go down there?" Christa asked, giving her parents a look. "Right?"

They nervously looked at each other, then at her, but she just smiled. "I'll be fine, guys. I'm smart. I'll be careful, I'll keep my eyes out, and I'll get to them. I'll be the link between humans and monsters."

"The Angel who has seen the surface, come to free us all." Gaster proclaimed. "That is something I'd very much like to believe in." He admitted, placing a hand over his chest, eyes closing as he sighed quietly.

"We've got a thorough list of devices we'll need to try and complete the machine." Alphys called out, entering the screen and waving it in front of the camera excitedly. "Stuff we don't really have down here in sufficient quantities. And some we don't have at all. We'll need three capacitors, two power converters to help feed the magnets in our accelerator drive, something to handle the beam dump, because if we don't dump the excess, it'll blow us all up and, er...well, cause a miniature black hole?"

 **"that, and we need something to keep the beam in place. It shakes about too much."** Sans added.

"An LHC collimation system! We can bring you that. That, combined with the proper relay we'll send down will help you with the beam dump. And with a multi-modal reflection sorter, you'll be able to keep the feed steady, and a little chronoton adjustment device will help with your delicate handling of the space-time continuum." Heather Lewis cheerily remarked, speaking almost at a mile a minute herself. "Experiments in time and space are more popular now. We've actually isolated wavelengths to slightly influence past and future events. Haven't been able to actually do so yet, though." She sighed. "There was a HUGE push back five years ago, but then the new crop of Senators got swept in, and they cut the funding. Much like Jimmy Carter's perpetual motion machine, it never saw the light of day."

"This is the problem with Washington DC." Solomon sighed as he pinched the space between his eyes, shaking his head back and forth as the three monster scientists stared at them sympathetically. "The issue with our government. Representative democracy means everyone gets a voice. But it also allows the rise of people with the philosophy of "I will stop you from doing good because I don't want you to get credit"."

"Wow, that's mean!" Alphys said, cringing. "I hope we get to fix that with our experiments. Um...but, uh...if you could bring a little something else down here besides those?"

"Like some anime?" Christa asked. "I've got a few boxed sets signed by the voice actors. Should I look for Mew Mew Kissy Cutie?"

"YES! OhmyGod, yes, yes, yes! Please!" Alphys begged, clasping her clawed hands together, getting on bent knee as she bowed her head. "Please please please! Especially if it was signed by Paku Romi!"

"The woman who voices Edward Elric in the Japanese side of Fullmetal Alchemist?" Gaster spoke up, raising a nonexistent eyebrow up as they all looked at him. "What? I watch the DVDs down here too. The story of FMA fascinates me. The search for Truth is the highest journey a scientist can go on. As is the necessary sacrifices to obtain it."

Christa heard that and for some reason, a shudder ran down her body as Gaster smiled. There had been something in the way he'd said that. A disturbing thought was rising in the back of her head. She had seen a softer side of him, yet briefly, a disturbing, haunting coldness had risen in her when she'd heard him speak those words. Why did she fear that, if the machine failed...Gaster would personally kill her himself?

Perhaps it was because nobody who was truly good all the way through would speak of..."necessary sacrifices".

As everyone eventually headed back to their rooms to get some rest for the night, Sans stopped by the main lab, looking over at the capsules covered in a sheet. He slowly walked before them. One...two...three-

Wait. One of them was glowing more brightly than usual.

He suddenly felt a presence behind him, and a voice ringing out. Not in the lab. But inside of him. His very core. His mind, his soul.

He turned around, and the accusing, sad eyes of a little black girl stared back at him, her frame gaunt and pale, black hair a mess as she looked him deep in the eye. "... _why_?" She asked. "I never did anything to you."

 **"oh, geez, kid, c'mon, d-don't be like that."** Sans stuttered as he stepped back from this spectral form that stared at him. **"i'm sorry i had to do it, but it was just a job."**

"I was just a kid."

Sans flinched at that as the girl shook her head back and forth. "You think this is your way out. You want it to be that to ease your conscience, Sans. Because you think it'll make up for what you did to me and to Qiang. If this works, it'll be like you never murdered us at all."

 **"we want out, kid! you don't get what we had to endur-"** Sans began to say before her gaze hardened slightly, and he took a step back.

 _"Don't you tell me I don't understand suffering."_ She said. "I never got to know my father. I lost my mother. I starved, scraped and suffered. You don't look like you've missed any meals."

 **"well, uh...skeleton. don't...need to eat much..."** Sans tried to wisecrack, the girl continuing to accusingly stare. **"look, whaddya want me to say?"**

"You and I both know that if Christa was coming down here as just another human, that if she wasn't going to try and help you get out, then...well..."

Hope trailed off, slowly fading from sight as her Soul ceased to glow from behind the curtain and Sans quietly finished what she had to say.

 **"she'd be dead where she stood."**

...

...

...

...she had convinced herself it wasn't saying goodbye. It wasn't going to be the last time she'd see her parents. Yet even so, she bade them a "see you later" with a heavy heart, and lowered herself on the long ladder down, down into the dark depths below. Dusting herself off, she picked up the small duffel bags she'd brought with her that held the pieces she needed for her friend's time/space machine, and looked around the darkness that surrounded her.

A flower was in her way, staring up at her with a distinctly non-flowery face.

"Howdy! I'm Flowey!" It remarked, Christa immediately dropping her bag and quickly whipping out her steely notebook from underneath her shirt. She'd put the steel-covered notebook there for quick reference and now began writing furiously as she sketched out a picture of the surprised Flowey. "Um...whatcha doin'...?" He asked.

"Hmm. Larger than a Daisy. Two feet in height, golden in color. A type of Perennial Sunflower, from the looks of it, similar in design to what's at the town square of Simsbury..." She put the pen she was writing with up against one of its petals, measuring it as Flowey stared at her in confusion before she scribbled down how large the petals were. "There! Got it all. Thanks! Bye!" She said, as Flowey blinked a bit. She lifted the duffel bags up and raced by him, one whacking him in the face and making him twirl about.

"OWIE!" He proclaimed. That was the second time she'd stuck him in the head with something, though she didn't know it.

Soon after, Christa was in the ruins, hiding behind a pillar and observing the various monsters the purple-walled empty buildings offered, quickly scribbling down all she could in her notepad. "Froggits. Life seems difficult for this enemy. But still more difficult is life for the fairy-like enemy that is the "Whimsun". This monster is too sensitive to fight. It's constantly muttering apologies to everyone, doesn't look people in the eye and it smells like lavender and mothballs." She murmured, continuing to write in the notepad. "I tried to approach one and talk, but halfway through my first word, it burst into tears and ran away."

Putting the notepad away, she made her way into the next room, finding several rocks and squishy, jello-like monsters lying there along with a Froggit that was just staring at them, hiding close to the doorway she was in. She approached it, kneeling down. "What're they?" She asked it as the Froggit blinked up at her before shrugging. "Modsmals. They loooove those rocks because they seem them as perfectly imitating them. They really like it when you imitate them. So stereotypical, it's sad. Ribbit."

Christa began writing in her notepad. "How so?"

"They're curvaceously attractive, but no brains. Ribbit." Froggit sighed. "As dumb as a rock, really. Well, birds of a feather flock together. Or in this case, Modsmals of a jelly get in a line to do some belly...dancing."

"Hmm. So...could I talk to them if I "spoke their language"?" Christa asked, as an idea came to her. "The language of the body?"

The frog-like monster shrugged again. "Well, you could try." Froggit admitted as Christa put her notebook down by her duffel bags and walked over to the Modsmals as the line took notice of her, burbling quietly and pensively staring. They seemed to be ruminating over what to do with her when she suddenly belted out

 _ **"You know what to do with that big fat butt!"**_

Had they mouths, they would have gaped, as she placed her hands on her hips, and, well...

C'mon. When would you EVER get to do this in normal conversation?

 _ **"WIGGLE WIGGLE WIGGLE."**_

Christa began to shake-shake, shake-it, shake-shake, shake-it, and the Modsmals followed in, doing a perfectly synchronized batch of wiggle dancing as Christa whistled out a perfect rendition of the infamous Jason DeRulo song. _**"Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle! Wiggle wiggle wiggle! Just a little bittle!"**_

A few moments later, some other monsters began peeking in to the impromptu dancing session, staring in surprise, Loox and Vegetoids glancing from Froggit to the Modsmals to each other, noticing that they had a new dancer all of a sudden.

"What the?!" Loox proclaimed, as the small-pincered hands of Migosp placed themselves on its hips and it stood alongside Christa, antannae bobbing in the air as the little insectoid creature beamed.

 _ **"WIGGLE WIGGLE WIGGLE!"**_ It proclaimed in perfect unison along with her. "Mmm! Chaa chaa chaaa!" It said as it swung its butt and arms about. "Shake it, shake it, girl!"

"I...I can't...whaaaaa..." Loox muttered out, smacking its face and dragging it down. "What am I looking at?!"

"This was fun!" Migosp said as the Modsmals wriggled off, shaking Christa's hand. "Thank you so much!"

"I was worried monsters down here might be evil, but maybe they're just hanging with the wrong crowd." Christa admitted. "A crowd that doesn't have moves that bring all the boys to the yard."

"It's how Migosp works. He almost always hangs around a crowd." Loox spoke up as he walked in with the rest of the monsters that he was with. "You're another human? What are you here for?"

"I'm going to go speak with the Royal scientist and his assistants. They're working on something to break everyone free from the barrier, and they got in contact with my family out on Mount Ebott!" Christa said proudly, beaming behind her Cloudy Glasses. "If it works, we'll change history so that there never WAS a Human/Monster war!"

"...you...mean that?" Loox asked, his singular eye staring at her. "Y-You're not just pulling my leg?"

"Yep. Serious as a heart attack!" She said. "But could I ask you guys, like...ten thousand questions about yourselves?" Christa asked excitedly, clicking her click-top pen and beaming as she held the notepad up. "You guys are like soooooooo cool!"

Lord knows that the Eyewalker family had been made very red. But BOY did Loox's face get even redder after that as Christa sat down, notepad out, eager to write all about the monsters of the ruins.

Needless to say, Toriel found her about two hours later, sitting with all of them as she showed off some of her favorite cartoons on her cell phone. "Take a look."

"Oh WOW. He looks just like me!" Loox said. "So its called "Monsters Inc"?" He inquired. "Did they ever do a seq-oh." He looked up, seeing Toriel. "It's Toriel, everyone! Uh, we were playing nice, really!" He insisted, all of the monsters swiftly backing away from her and Christa as Christa stood up, eyes wide as she looked Toriel over.

"Ohhh wooooowww." She murmured. "I know that rune, I saw it on the banners in the lab that Dr. Gaster has in the background, and-wait. Toriel? As in King Fluffybuns's wife?"

Toriel deeply blushed at that, covering her mouth. "Oh! I, um...you, er...you know of that?"

"Gaster told me all about it. I'm Christa Solomon Lewis!" Christa said, shaking Toriel's hands and beaming happily. "My family's been trying to study Mount Ebott for a while, and I finally got to contact your royal scientist and his assistants when I was doing an experiment! Now I wanna try and help you guys get out from the Barrier and fix Monster/Human relations."

Toriel looked relieved, sighing slightly. "Oh thank goodness some up on the surface want to help." She admitted, wiping her brow. "I'll do anything I can to help. But you must no doubt be hungry. Why don't we go to my house?" She inquired, leading Christa along, helping to carry one of the duffel bags. "OOF! My, this is quite heavy! To think you've been lugging all of this on your lonesome!"

"The burden of Truth is a heavier load to bear!" Christa proclaimed melodramatically, pointing at the sky. "...oh, that sounded so much better in my head." She sighed. "Why can Anime protagonists pull it off and not me?"

Soon, Christa and Toriel were chatting by the fireside as Christa recorded everything Toriel had to say on her phone, thankful she'd gotten one with such extensive storage space. Showing off what she had in her duffel bag, Christa and Toriel were soon sitting down to eat, munching on some cookies that Toriel had baked as Christa talked about her family and what they fully wanted to do. Toriel didn't understand the specifics, but she got the gist of what was going to happen, and nodded eagerly, giving Christa a big smile.

"Having someone actually fix all of this would be a great ease on my conscience." She admitted. "I've often wondered how much better our lives could have been had we not been driven from the surface." Toriel remarked with a sigh.

"Was...was the war really bad for your side?"

"I will not act like we monsters behaved purely all the time. But when the war did break out, it was quite one-sided. We hurt them, but they practically slaughtered us. The humans had always outnumbered us, and soon, they had surrounded us utterly. We thought they'd slay us if not for the seven sorcerers speaking up." Toriel went on as she clasped her hands together and looked over into the fire, staring for what seemed to be a long, long time. "Asgore and I were still rather young. We all huddled together in fear as they stared at us, the seven whispering in a huddle before turning to their leader. I remember him being tall but...with a cute little button nose." She admitted, a small smile spreading across her face. "And adorable rosy cheeks. He seemed so...soft...for a human. He was chewing on a lock of long brown hair when they talked to him and then when he finally made the decision, he was stuttering a little. It was like watching a puppy barking at a larger dog."

She sighed and shook her head, a small smile on her face. "It's funny, the things you remember about the past."

As she continued to gaze into the fire, Christa moved a bit closer to her. "I'll do everything I can to make sure this time, you won't have to see that guy just before he banishes you all to the Underground. That this time, you can meet over...well...maybe tea?"

Toriel smiled.

"That would have been nice."

...

...

...

...it wasn't long before Christa would be saying goodbye to another parental figure again. She'd taken extensive notes of the Ruins during the week she stayed with Toriel, and had said goodbye with a heavy heart, giving the woman a big ol' hug before heading out to Snowdin and all that lay in waiting for her.

"I swear, they'd drag me away to an insane asylum, yelling "Get the Stick, Get the Stick" over and over." Christa remarked to herself, writing down in her notebook as the many dogs of the Royal Guard Snowdin Divison hopped about, rolling in the snow, sticks in their mouths. Save for a black and white dog that was, er...well, she suspected he was smoking dog treats in his shack, loud snorting and coughing noises filling the air, followed by an erotic moan.

The monsters in Snowdin were very, very much attention-seekers. But that was just fine for her. In fact, she happily sat down on a stump to join several other monsters at "Snowdrake's Side-Splitter Show" by a large, frozen-over lake as Ice Caps and Gyftrot, a faintly reindeer-esque monster with a face that split open from the bottom and an extra set of eyes in its anters. It looked Christa over as she stared at him, seeing he had...stuff...wrapped around his antlers.

"Why do you have Christmas lights on your antlers and tinsel on your tuckus?" She asked, Gyftrot groaning.

"Some kids from Snowdin decorated me as a prank. You find it funny?!" He asked as she plucked the tinsel off, and began untangling the Christmas lights. "...oh. Th-thank you." He remarked, Snowdrake entering the "stage" between two snow-covered trees and bowing dramatically. His bird-like head dipped up and down as the Ice Caps and Gyftrot and Christ all clapped, Gyftrot giving Christa a careful look. "Whatever you do, don't heckle Snowdrake."

"Lemme guess. We're gonna be a...captive audience?" She whispered back. "Unless we laugh at his material?"

"Yeah, he wants to be like his Dad. He works up at the resort by the Core in Hotlands as the hotel's comedian, and Snowdrake wants to be just like his old man." Gyftrot admitted as Snowdrake cleared his throat.

"Ladies and germs! Just flew in to Snowdin. Boy are my wings tired. But don't worry folks, I can heat up this COLD reception I expect to get with some really hot material!" Snowdrake remarked.

Christa tried not to laugh. She was a sucker for really lame jokes, even if the others were just mildly chuckling to avoid getting an icy boomerang shot to the face.

"So!" Snowdrake proclaimed, wings spread wide. "Wanna know what my favorite food is? Macaroni and Freeze! What can I say? Ice puns are SNOW problem for me."

Christa was now giggling madly behind her hands, trying in vain to surpress laughter as the others looked at her in surprise. "She actually finds this funny?" An Ice Cap asked Snowdrake's friend Chilldrake as it sat nearby and shrugged, taking off its sunglasses to stare at her.

"I'm glad to see someone's enjoying my jokes! What can I say, I'm a pretty...cool guy." Snowdrake remarked. "Wow. I am, like...so hot. Burning hot. On fire hot, tonight!"

"But it's, like, twenty degrees out." Gyftrot remarked, confused as Snowdrake grinned.

"And I'm talkin' about my act." He laughed, taking a step forward onto the frozen lake and twirling about, doing perfect figure eights...before flopping onto his face, moaning. _**"Don't be alarmed if I fall head over feet..."**_ He sang out.

Christa began bawling with laughter, almost flopping off her stump as Snowdrake grinned a bit, a tooth falling out from the fall. "See? L-Laughs! I was right! I CAN make it!"

It was becoming quite clear that Christa had a certain charm about her that seemed to be winning over everyone. Something about her nerdy, dorky exterior, the big ol purple shirt, the cloudy glasses, that cheery, braces-helped-along smile...it made her unassuming and easily approachable. So she didn't have a single bad encounter with anyone as she said goodbye to Snowdin and entered Waterfall, guided along by some Modsmals who were quite happy to do a wiggling Conga line.

"Shake shake shake! Shake shake shake! Shake your booty!" She proclaimed, shaking it like a Polaroid picture as a small little thing that appeared to be a living bathtub monster of some kind. It had a circular "head" like a shield in front of it, with a little stubby tail and a bird floating in the large tub that was its central body as it scrubbed away at what appeared to be a Mer-Horse. The two caught sight of Christa waving goodbye to the Modsmals as she approached them, holding up her notebook. "Hiya! I'm Christa! I'm asking questions of everyone here in Waterfall as part of my studies."

"Oh... _myyyyyy_." Woshua whispered. His little black eyes went wide, gazing in awe. Christa was so beautifully clean! She hadn't an ounce of dirt or grime or muck on her, her pants were neatly ironed along with her shirt, she wore crisp black shoes...and she smelled positively delightful! "So...so CLEAN!" He proclaimed, bouncing up and down, beaming in delight. "Squeaky clean!"

"Woshua adoooores cleanliness." Aaron said, flicking his hair back as he showed off his muscular arms. "It's understandable. Cleanliness is next to godliness. And I am unto a GOD here in waterfall. Forget Undyne's spears. I rock these guns!" He proclaimed, flexing his arms as Christa began writing down in her notebook. "Oh, yes, please, get my good side. ;) " He said, Christa now trying to draw Aaron as best she could as he flexed a bit and winked at Christa. "CHECK. THIS. OUT."

"You sure do love your muscles." Christa admitted. "How fascinating! So you're a...sea horse, is that it?"

"I suppose you could say that. ;) " Aaron said, giving Christa another wink, making her inwardly shudder. Okay, she liked ponies just fine, but...this guy was kind of creeping her out. "I'm a stud of a stallion with a lot of HP. And the HP stands for HORSEPOWER, baby!" He proclaimed, flexing even more...more! MORE!

Christa cringed. Ugh. He smelled like mussles. Wait. An idea was coming to her. "So I take it you spend a lot of time at the undersea gym here, right? Hope you're not pulling any...MUSSELS." She told Aaron.

Woshua groaned, shaking its little head back and forth as Aaron laughed uproariously. "Hahahahahaha! No, no! Not on...poipose!" He cackled. "Oh, poor Woshua looks like he's getting CRABBY about these jokes!"

"Yeah, COD we just SQUID while we're ahead?" Christa inquired, closing her notebook as Woshua began moaning.

"Pleaaaase, stoooop!" He sobbed, trotting off as Christa cheerily waved goodbye, heading off towards the East, a large sign reading "To the Hotlands, The Royal Laboratory, The Core" as she passed by a statue of a monster with a bowed head, rain pouring down upon it.

But it was then that a voice stopped her in her tracks. It radiated power and intensity, and she felt a shudder go through her as the unmistakable scent of fish filled the air.

"Three Souls. That's how many we have right now. Three human souls."

A step forward. A **CLANK** that rang through the air. Christa turned pale as she suddenly realized why Sans had been so reluctant to talk about the humans who'd fallen down to the Underground. It wasn't just about killing children. No. This was...this was...

"Seven. With Seven Souls, King Asgore Dreemur can become a God, shatter the barrier, and avenge our kind for all the horror that humanity leveled on us."

 **CLANK. CLANK. CLANK.**

"...four. That's how many we're going to have if we take yours."

Christa slowly turned around, an armored form pointing a piercingly bright blue spear in her face. "So you tell me right now...why I shouldn't just kill you, human. _And rip the Soul from your body._ " Undyne, Head of the Royal Guard quietly demanded, a singular, piercing yellow eye gazing out from a dark helmet.


	7. Holding On To What You Haven't Got

**Author's Note: A big thanks again to all who are following, favoriting and reviewing this story. And please. DON'T be afraid to leave a review or a critique or a commentary of any kind. I will never improve on writing if not told when I make mistakes and how to improve. Don't ever forget that.**

* * *

Christa gulped and took a step back, hands held up as the scaly head of the Royal Guard pointed her magical spear accusingly at her, an eye that seemed to stare right into her soul burrowing out from the helmet she wore. "Um...because you wouldn't hit a girl with glasses?" Christa offered up with a nervous smile.

Undyne blinked a bit, then walked over, took the glasses off of Christa, and whacked her over the head.

"No, I'll hit a girl WITH glasses." Undyne remarked before handing Christa her glasses back, giving her a toothy grin as she took off her helmet. "PSYCHE! I know why you're down here, human. Alphys called me up. Said you're here to help us break free of the barrier." She remarked. "Because of that, I'm more than happy to escort you to the lab. There, we can frolick in the fields of friendship!" She proclaimed, clasping her gauntlets together as the spear faded away and Undyne blinked her one good eye in an effeminate way.

"Oh, really?"

The yell from Undyne almost knocked her right into a nearby wall as Christa flopped onto her butt, the bags hitting the ground on either side as her notebook slid out as well. **"NOT!"**

"You don't have to yell." Christa murmured, pushing up her classes from the edge of her nose as she started picking her things up, Undyne shaking her head.

"Listen kid. It's nice you wanna actually try to make up for what your species did to us. It is. But I want you to understand something. I've had my share of experiences with humans. And if it wasn't for the fact that my bestest friend Alphys thinks you're helpful to us, I'd put you on a spit and roast you." Undyne remarked darkly, drawing a gauntleted finger across her neck, showing off a grim, toothy grin.

"Experiences? How?" Christa asked before she took notice of Undyne's eye patch, Undyne realizing that the nerdy human was staring right at her. "Oh. OH. Is...was that one of the kids? Maybe the Asian girl?"

Undyne instinctively raised a hand up to try and cover the eye patch before lowering her hand, her voice becoming quiet and low. "It was a long...long...time ago." She mumbled. "When the First Human was still down here." She said, Christa putting the duffel bags around her shoulders as she held up her notebook.

"I'm American. I like a good story." She reasoned. "Besides, talking about what bothers you is the first step to overcoming it."

Undyne looked Christa over, then sighed, ushering for her to follow her down the pathway to the Hotlands, clunking along in her armor as Christa scribbled away in her notepad. "Okay, human. You really wanna know? It all happened back in 2012. The human had been living with the Royal Family for three months, and Asgore felt it was a good idea that Chara learn how to defend herself. After all, if Asriel could be taught basic magic, then Chara deserved some self defense lessons. So he asked me to help train her. Just the basics, he insisted."

Undyne grinned wryly. "Oh, if I'd known then what I knew now about that little brat..."

 _ **"I can't stay! Tomorrow I'll be on my waaaay! So don't expect to find me sleepin' in my bed, cuz when you wake up...I won't be theeeeere!"** The brown-haired Greek American girl sang out as she sauntered her way out of the house and towards the large tree in the front yard. The sunlight always lovingly filtered in from a very faint opening high above the palace, an opening that Asriel would one day use to return home for the very last time, and it cast soft golden rays all over the yard. It was as if the entire place was gilded, and Chara spun around, dancing slightly in the flowerbeds. _

_"What's that song?" Undyne asked, resting her head on her palms as she stood upright on her magic spear, one eyebrow raised up as her flowing red hair slid down her back. She tilted her head slightly, Chara kneeling down by one of the flowers and picking it up, doing a "he loves me, he loves me not" kind of deal with it as she plucked its petals one after another._

 _"Ah, it's my favorite song. I left home singin' it and didn't stop until I'd started falling into Mount Ebott. BOY that hurt." Chara remarked. "Ah, well, good thing I ended up here. I only had online stuff and the golden flowers in my yard to look forward to every day. And even online..." She groaned, rolling her eyes. "Ugh. Why is everyone so stupid and selfish and dumb? Sometimes I wish I'd been born here, as a monster. You guys don't have wars or "race" or any of that stuff. It's all so much purer and better."_

 _"Well good to see you recognize quality when you see it!" Undyne laughed as she spun her spear. "I'm gonna teach you everything Asgore and Gerson taught me about the basics. What weapon are you good with?"_

 _"Knives." Chara answered immediately. "I got this good hunting knife at a flea market and my mom took it away from me. I was so mad. I looked so cool with it! Why can't I just buy and use something because it looks cool?" Chara wanted to know, Undyne tossing her a sheathed knife which Chara easily caught in one hand._

 _"Ooh. Good!" Undyne complimented, nodding her head as Chara took it out of its sheathe, the 11 year old girl holding it up and getting the feel of it, slicing at the air a bit as she waved it back and forth. "Now then. I'm gonna start off easy. I'll launch slow spears at you, and you deflect them with your weapon." Undyne said. "Remember. You have to face me head on!" She proclaimed, holding out a palm, Chara's burning red SOUL emerging before her chest as she took up a fighting postion to face down the fish. Undyne snapped her gauntleted fingers, shimmering pale blue spears popping out from midair, moving at Chara at a pretty reasonable pace._

 _Chara ducked and weaved, slicing up and through each spear with expert strokes, nodding her head. "I feel good doing this. Real good." She said. "This is easy!" She laughed. "Dad would make us do Apocalypse Prepping for two years instead of Holidays like Christmas after that guy got elected, I can handle harder!"_

 _"Alright then!" Undyne said, though something about the almost reddish glint in Chara's eye made her uneasy. She held her gauntlets up, focusing more intently as the spears got faster. Chara continued bobbing and weaving, slicing and knocking the spears away, making them dissipate in midair. "Good job! Keep it up, then when you're ready, run up and attack me. Try for a good punch."_

 _Chara was already smoothly moving with the fluidity of a python, and before Undyne knew what to do, Chara had kicked her squarely in the neck and knocked her back. "Ha-HA!" Chara proclaimed dramatically before twirling the knife in one hand, Undyne slightly staggering, almost flopping onto her back. "Prepare to become SUSHI!" She remarked, taking up another fighting position as Undyne grit her teeth._

 _"She's just a kid, she's just a kid, you can't get mad!" Undyne had thought to herself as she twirled her spear and did a few simple stabs at Chara. "Remember to block and weave!" She informed the girl, who twisted her body about like a snake going up a tree, Undyne nodding. "Yes, like that, don't let yourself get hit, wait for your cha-"_

 _Chara took that chance, and sliced up, leaping through the air..._

 _The knife far, far too close to Undyne's face, catching her off guard. And suddenly she realized that she had been hit far harder than she'd figured._

 _"GAAAAAAAAAAAH!"_

Undyne held a hand over the eye patch, her tone quiet and reflective. "I kept it to remind me of what happened the last time I went easy on a human." She informed Christa, who's mouth was a perfect circle as she stared up at Undyne, the two having finally halted in front of an enormous, square-shaped white-painted laboratory surrounded by magma. Cooling vents rose up from the magma some distance away as they stood before the door on reddish/brown ground, Undyne clenching her fists as she held them at her side. "Made me look cooler. But I didn't forgive her for what she did. Not ever."

She turned, glaring down at Christa. "So don't expect to be friends with me. I'll be a cold day in Hotland before I'm friends with a human."

"That's fair." Christa said, closing her notebook as Alphys opened up the door and cheerily led them in, holding up a large plate she'd been carrying.

"Nachos?"

"Oh, yes please!" Undyne insisted, immediately grabbing a large handful and stuffing them in her mouth as Christa happily shook hands with Alphys's other free hand. Meanwhile, Sans and Gaster were in the next room, Sans staring at the covered capsule that held the African American child's soul as Gaster looked down at a snazzy metal clipboard.

"Sounds like the human is here. With a bit of luck, we'll finally fix everything."

 **"...bro?"** Gaster glanced up and turned to look at Sans, his dear short brother staring intently at the capsule as his tone got quiet and contemplative. **"have you ever been...well...haunted? By the memory of someone?"**

Sans expected Gaster to say something witty or dismissive. Instead, Gaster's tone was subdued and somber.

"Every single day of my life."

Sans turned to look back at Gaster, clear surprise on his face as the scarred skull of his brother's face looked into a mirror across the way, Gaster seemingly staring not at himself but...someone else. Several someones. His eyes trailed slightly to the left, to the right, to some vision behind him that only he could see.

"Ever since that day they're all I've seen. And the day I no longer see them is the day that we make this right. If it means I am no longer remembered as the Royal Scientist, that's not a problem to me. I don't mind if it means I'll be remembered as the one who found the true path to peace."

"Your brother won't find redemption that way."

Sans gasped, turning around. Hope was sitting there in a nearby chair, hands in her lap. "I've waited a long time. And I'll keep waiting if I have to. But when the day comes that he finally understands what he needs...I'll be there to help. He CAN help free all of you from this place. But I don't think it'll be in the way he thought it would."

 **"what're you talkin' bout?"** Sans asked, Gaster looking back at Sans, who appeared to be speaking to a chair. Gaster sighed quietly and stood by Sans, putting a hand on his brother's shoulder.

"Is it her? I can't see her."

 **"...yeah, it's her. she says you're gonna free us, but not in the way ya think."** Sans muttered.

"And you should duck." The girl added, Sans blinking stupidly before a paper airplane whacked him in the face, and he turned, seeing Christa putting down her notebook and smiling as she waved. Sans pulled the notebook paper airplane open, and it read "HELLO SANS" in big letters, Gaster smiling warmly at this as he practically swept over to her and shook her hamd.

"A pleasure to meet you in person, Christa." He said politely, Christa nodding her head as Gaster and Alphys left with her to go to the inner workings of the lab to show off the time/space experiments they'd been doing, and the fascinating capsule device that would allow them to travel back in time, and to fix everything. As they left, Sans stared back at the capsule that held Hope's soul, Undyne staring at the one that held Neil's.

"Can you see them too?" She asked. "I can sort of see him. Not that well, but a little."

Sans saw Qiang now sitting next to Hope, and he looked away. **"yeah. I see them too."**

"It'll be nice to get out of here." Undyne said with a sigh. "And to finally see daylight."

Meanwhile, Alphys was going over some charts, speaking excitedly about possible timelines that would result from their work as Gaster patted the immense capsule-esque time travel device they had. It reminded Christa very much of the type of time capsules people would bury for future generations to dig up, with gleaming blue and steely machinery, thick glass, tubes connecting the device to the laboratory power lines in the walls and a keyboard placed at the front. "We'll begin installing the parts you've got immediately." Gaster said. "I have to say, it's..." He breathed a sigh of relief. "After so long, to finally have some real hope that we can leave the Underground? It's almost like a dream."

"Yeah, this alternative involves a lot less...stabbing and soul-stealing." Alphys admitted, Christa flinching as Alphys began taking parts out of one of Christa's duffel bags, Christa biting her lip as she stared at Gaster. Sensing she wanted to talk more privately, he led her into his private office nearby, sitting down behind a desk. A painting on the wall of the Royal Family and the Royal Guard with Gaster by King Asgore's side hung to the right of his large mahogany desk, a cute little squeezy globe next to an old-fashioned hourglass lying on the left hand side. He picked the globe up, squeezing it over in his hands before tossing it back and forth, Christa opening up her notebook and letting her hand feel over what she'd written.

She spoke after what seemed to be a long time, her tone quiet and almost accusing. "Souls? You really...you really took souls? Why?"

"In order to break the barrier." Gaster sighed, putting the squeezy ball down and holding his head in one hand. "Understand that to pass THROUGH the barrier, all a monster or a human would need is their own soul, and a soul from another member of the opposite species. To **break** it though? That would require the might of Seven Human 'd have to combine their desires and will it so. Either that...or a monster would have to have the power of Seven Souls, for if a monster ever gained hold of Seven Human Souls, they would become insanely power. They'd become...well..." He held his hands up. "Godlike! That was the power humans feared. It's why they wanted to wage war against us."

"And how do you know seven souls could do that?"

Gaster quietly looked back at the painting. "Research." He mumbled out. "At any rate, I'm glad you're here now. If all goes well, we'll travel back in time. There's so very I wish I could do again. Sacrifices that I thought I had to make that I only now regret. Ah, but is not hindsight 20/20?" Gaster mused, standing up and exiting the room, Christa watching him leave as she quietly sat there, eyes blinking behind her cloudy glasses. She had asked him a rather straightforward question.

He hadn't really given her an answer. But she had a feeling she knew the answer anyway. And knew **exactly** why Wing Ding Gaster wanted to go back in time.

"...why am I shaking?" She rhetorically asked aloud, arms wrapped around herself. "C-C'mon, I...I can't have hard feelings for what he did eons ago...r-right? Right?"

Somehow, though...she wasn't sure she believed that. She was a patient girl. She was willing to work day after day to make sure the time machine would work. She could wait until it was ready.

But hearing what Undyne had said, and knowing what Gaster had done...it made her think monsterkind wouldn't wait. And that if push came to shove-

Suddenly Christa didn't feel very smart at all. She felt very stupid for coming down here.

"...please, PLEASE don't let Murphy's Law hit." She quietly prayed aloud.

...

...

...

...Christa knelt down by the bottom of the capsule, tightening the multi-modal reflection sorter as Alphys measured the pulsating white/blue beam that was cascading down from the top to the bottom, furiously writing down notes on her own snazzy metal clipboard. "It's taken months of work and several all nights, but we did it!" She complimented. "It's at 400 megahertz. The electromagnetic field it's building is making is contained quite nicely within the capsule now, and pulsing at a steady rate that is easily managed and won't make the thing explode!"

 **"yeah, the thing came close a bunch of times."** Sans admitted as he passed Christa a lug nut, which she took in her tiny hands whilst he worked on the other side of the bottom end. **"for a few moments I got caught in the thing when it was shaking like a leaf. It was like..."** Sans paused, trying to find the right words to describe what he'd seen before he held a bony hand up. **"it was like looking in a tunnel of a thousand stars that were cascading all around you. it was really, really beautiful."** He admitted.

Christa blinked a bit, smiling back at him as she kept working on the capsule, Gaster walking in with a big smile on his face. "King Asgore's overjoyed. When I told him that the device was almost ready, he looked like he was going to cry from joy." Gaster clasped his hands together, beaming broadly. "It's positively wonderful! But let us make sure the device functions properly. I don't want to make any unfortunate mistakes." He said.

"It's operating at optimum capacity. Perhaps we could do a test run?" Alphys asked. "Maybe send something back, oh...ten minutes?"

"Ten minutes." Gaster paced back and forth in his dark coat, brow furrowed. "...are we positively sure it would work? Are the O-Rings in place? Is the electromagnetic field completely contained?"

 **"you betcha, brother."** Sans said with a grin. **"no bones about it. this is gonna work."** He said, Gaster trying not to laugh as he rubbed his hands together and beamed.

"Well, ten minutes then! I'll send, um...I've got it! Sans! KETCHUP me." He proclaimed, Sans tossing a bottle of ketchup at his brother from out of his lab coat, Gaster catching it in one hand as he quickly typed away at the time machine's control console. His hands flew across the keyboard like white lightning as everyone quickly stepped away from the device, and soon Gaster ripped the top off the bottle and stepped into the beam.

Everyone held their breath as a thwumpa-thwumpa-thwumpa noise filled the air, Sans gripping a nearby chair tightly, Alphys trembling like a leaf as Christa took out the notepad she always carried with her and scribbled down into it. "He's stepped inside. This is it. Our first real test."

For a long time, nothing happened. All was still and you could practically hear a pin drop. But then...

Gaster stepped out, missing the bottle of ketchup as he gave a bow. "I believe it was a rousing success!" He remarked.

 **"how can ya tell?"**

A moment later the answer came as Alphys pulled out her cell phone which was playing the theme song to Mew Mew Kissy Cutie, holding it up to her head. "Hello?"

"Ah, yes, er...WD told me to call you in precisely ten minutes after he spoke to me. I'm also now covered in ketchup." Asgore's voice rang out from the other end of the line. "...I take it the experiment worked?"

 **"SUCCESS!"** Everyone grasped each other tightly and began hopping up and down, giddily grinning in delight from ear to ear. "We did it, we did it, we did it!" Alphys cried out in delight. "Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!" She gasped out, fanning herself. "We're! I mean! We've...just, WOW! I...I gotta go update my status online!" She said, breaking the hug as Sans grinned and nodded, exiting the room.

 **"i'm gonna go tell Papyrus. he's gonna be psyched to hear this."** He said, leaving Gaster and Christa alone with the device as they stared at it, hands in their pockets as they both beamed in delight.

"At long last, I'll finally wipe the slate clean." Gaster said softly. "Finally I can make things right. They'll remember me forever for this."

"...what did it look like?" Christa asked. "Could...could you show me just a quick peek? If not, I'd understand." She offered.

Gaster shook his head back and forth, giving her a calm nod. "Christa, you have been working on this for us for over two months now. This is all thanks to you. I would be happy to let you get a little peek. Want me to show you what I did?" He offered, Christa taking his hand as he led her into the beam, the coordinates still locked on ten minutes ago.

It was like stepping through rain but without getting wet, and then she was surrounded by a thousand iridescent points of light. All of it cascaded around them as Gaster smiled and closed his eyes, deeply breathing in as he held his hands out. "Look at it, Christa. The beauty of the timeline. Every single light is an individual soul along the timeline, and we're seeing everything they represent. The culmination of all life in the Underground is passing around us. For so long, we had no hope."

His tone then changed slightly, becoming softer, and as the lights flickered around them and swirled, she realized he was beginning to sing. _**"We were waiting for the end to come...wishing we had strength to stand. This is not what I...had planned. It's out of my controool..."**_

He walked towards the streaming lights, holding a hand out. The lights swerved and danced around his hand, Gaster mesmerized by the flow of beauty around him as Christa walked alongside him, Gaster continuing to sing. _ **"Flying at the speed of liiight! Thoughts were spinning in my head...so many things were left unsaid...it's hard to let it goooooo! I know what it takes to move ooooon! I know how it feels to liiiie! All I wanna do is trade this life for something new, holding on to what I haven't...gooooooooot!"**_

"Linkin Park?" Christa asked. "You know about them?"

"Alphys collects much human things. I found a CD from above of the band, about...an impending apocalypse. I would play this track over and over..." Gaster whispered, his pupils becoming pinpricks. "The darkness just kept stretching out, darker, yet darker. Our photon readings were negative, we were without a chance. Holding onto what we didn't have. But then..." He closed his eyes, and a small smile danced across his skeletal features. "I tried another song, just out of curiosity. And in my mind, I could see it. An idea forming. The hardest part of ending was starting again. And that was it. I couldn't look at it as an ending, but...a beginning. We could trade this life for something new if we just thought outside the box."

He spun about, head held up, and WD Gaster grinned with delight as he and Christa now stepped out of the lights, finding themselves inside of golden walls, within the palace. Gaster smiled and hid behind a column with Christa as another Gaster said goodbye to a big, fuzzy, goat-like monster with a crown, a beard and a big ol' set of caped armor. He waved goodbye to Gaster...

Just as another one popped up behind him, pouring ketchup over his head, Asgore blinking stupidly as Gaster clasped him on the shoulder. "Call Alphys is exactly ten minutes." The second Gaster said, exiting towards a distant time machine down the hall before it and he vanished, Gaster giggling along with Christa as they headed back to their own machine, the two sitting down. Christa bobbed her feet back and forth as they sat on the circular pad of light they were resting upon, a thousand suns stretching around them as Gaster closed his eyes, breathing in deeply, the ketchup bottle still in his pocket.

"The idea this would work seemed almost insane. But I didn't think it was unobtainable, but invisible. It could be held onto. You just had to get lucky. Get it just right. And now, at long last, we're holding on to what we hadn't got. Hope. Real hope." He whispered. "A normal life out in the surface again. Being able to see the sun, and to feel a soft breeze on my face. To feel real, green grass beneath my feet, and to see the light as its filtered in through those beautiful stained glass windows the humans loved so much when we last lived on the surface with them." Gaster smiled in delight as he turned to Christa. "I can't wait to make new memories."

"If this works, are you worried about a paradox? Like, if we do this, we'll inadvertently erase ourselves because if monsters and humans never went to war, I never came down here to build a time machine?" Christa worried aloud.

"I believe actual time travel sort of makes you immune to such effects." Gaster admitted. "At least, that's what my theory is. I certainly hope we don't erase ourselves. Can you..." He shuddered. "I mean, the prospect of that is horrifying to me. Imagining a world where you don't even exist and nobody realizes you're gone? It..." His tone turned quiet and terrified, pupils tiny pinpricks. _"The thought terrifies me."_ He whispered.

"I'm scared that something might happen too." Christa admitted. "We'll keep running checks and tests to make sure it works." She insisted as they finally reached the present day, stepping out as Sans and Alphys stood in the doorway, waiting for them to exit the capsule. Christa stepped out first, then Gaster, the two heading for the doorway to get some celebration nachos...

And then it happened.

The ketchup bottle that was in Gaster's pocket flopped out, and it shattered on the floor. A glob of ketchup sailed through the air, Gaster groaning as he turned around. "Oh, phew, I didn't get it on my coat-" He began to say...

Just as the ketchup remnants from the bottle flopped onto the keyboard console, soaking it through. A spark. A sizzle.

And then the machine began to howl and spark, and Gaster and Christa began to be pulled towards the machine, Sans gasping as Alphys stared in horror. "get Undyne, we'll need raw muscle!" Sans roared, Alphys quickly racing off to get hold of her as Sans grabbed hold of Christa and Sans with both hands, struggling to pull them away from the sharp pull of the machine. The beam from it was cascading around them, almost digging claws into their forms. They had sampled of the time space continuum, and it now appeared to be trying to claim them for itself. Something had gone horribly, horribly wrong, and Sans struggled as best he could to pull them back.

Sans was very, very strong. Christa knew this. She'd taken extensive notes of monster after monster from both her own experiences, Alphys's records on monsters in the lab, Sans and Gaster's tales...she knew Sans was tough. But as hard as it was to believe...he was failing. He couldn't grip them both very strongly. The pull of the machine was too great, a horrific roar filling their ears as Sans began to slide towards the machine as well, eyes wide with terror.

 **"DON'T YOU DO THIS TO ME, GOD DAMN IT!"** Sans screamed out, Christa trying to hold onto Gaster as much as she could, Gaster gripping her hand with both of his as his eyes went wide with terror, looking back into the burning, harsh light of the capsule. Christa's glasses flopped to the ground, her hair whipping back and forth as she screamed in terror. **"DON'T YOU LET GO! NEITHER OF YOU LET GO, YOU HEAR ME!"**

"I'M...NOT...NOT GOING TO...GIVE UP!" Gaster screamed back as a faint light began to wrap around Sans as well. He was experiencing contact effects, the timeline was trying to suck him in too. Luckily Undyne came racing into the room with Alphys, grabbing hold of Sans as she began to tug with all of her might, and they began to inch closer and closer to the doorway with Alphys's help. For a few minutes as the roaring got louder and louder, it looked like they were about to get free completely as Gaster cringed, the wind whipping around him...

And then he saw it. Six pairs of eyes staring sadly. Not accusingly, but...sadly. All looking at him with a mournful expression on their faces as they turned, glancing at the capsule...then at Christa.

And in that instant, Gaster understood. He knew what he had to do, as the roar suddenly ended, and all of time seemed to freeze, Sans's eyes going wide as Gaster's whisper filled his ears.

 _"Please. Don't forget me."_

And with that, Gaster was gone, a bright light flashing through the lab, blinding them all, making them reel back. An explosion rocketed forth from the machine, sending them flying, and Sans bumped his head against the wall, slumping down to the floor.

He lay there, in absolute darkness, barely conscious before, at last, his eyes fluttered open, and he saw Undyne was kneeling by Christa...

The computer console for the device having flown off the time machine, shooting into her back. She was stuck to the floor, and quietly crying as she looked up into Alphys and Sans and Undyne's eyes, Undyne looking guiltily down at her as Alphys just wailed, covering her face. Sans slowly rose up, his expression horrified as he knelt down by Christa, holding her cheeks as she looked up at him, the tears steadily flowing.

"...my...my notebook is such a mess." She managed to get out. "...my dad gave that to me for my birthday and it's such a mess." She said, gesturing at the torn notebook that had flopped onto the ground by her glasses as she softly laughed. "Ha ha ha...my...my dad's gonna kill me."

 **"hey, hey. shhhh. don't speak, kid. you gotta conserve your strength."** Sans whispered softly, sadly. **"it'll be okay."**

"...I can...still feel him." Christa managed to murmur, Undyne blinking a bit.

"Your dad?" She asked, Alphys blinking a bit, as if trying to recall something, an odd expression on her features as Christa slowly shook her head, looking up into Sans's face.

"He's holding on to what he hasn't got. Do the same. Don't...let go." She whispered. "Don't give up. Persevere. Hold...on."

With that, her body became cold, Undyne quietly cupping her hands around the soft soul that rose up from her body as Alphys quietly walked over to a nearby table, getting out the necessary capsule as Sans stared at the device off in the distance. He sat there, Christa's cheek turning cold in his hands as Undyne deposited the soul in the capsule and put it by the others, placing the sheet over it as Alphys stared at the capsule as well, her tone becoming...thoughtul.

"I...wait, was that...why do I feel so sad looking at that?..." She murmured. "...I'm...I feel like I'm missing something." Alphys whispered.

Sans just sat there.

And he cried.

...

...

...

...a pair of hands with giant holes through their palms softly picked up the paper. Smiling slightly, he looked over the collection he now had, humming a quiet tune as he made his way through the purple halls of the Ruins, a brown-haired boy with yellowish skin staring at a dummy. Nearby, the caretaker of the ruins stood, the Ex-Queen blinking a bit, almost shivering as she glanced about. She wasn't sure, but...for a minute, she was certain she'd...felt someone else there.

The child, meanwhile, stared at the dummy, and the figure knelt down by him. He smiled broadly, and the words came naturally to him, echoing in young Frisk's mind, his heart, his soul. The words of someone who had studied the Underground so passionately, who had persevered and written so much because she cared. He spoke Christa's words and Frisk could hear as he did a check...of this little dummy before him.

 _"A cotton heart and a button eye, you are the apple of my eye."_

He couldn't do a lot.

But he could pass on what she'd learned, and help this little angel learn it in turn.


	8. The Things You Do For Love

**Author's Note:**

 **A big hearty thank you to all who've been reading this, reviewing it, following and making this a favorite. The next few chapters will be more light-hearted, which I think we deserve a bit of after the very sad ending of the last one. Hope you all like it just the same!**

* * *

With a cheery, peppy face, lovely locks of red hair, and a smile a mile wide, you'd never know that Anthony Vardalos's parents were dying and he was only 11 years old. For he sure as Hell didn't show it.

Indeed, he whistled as he worked, standing over the stove as he made them some of his delightful scrambled eggs, white chef's hat atop his head with a big ol' apron at the front that had a cheery-looking gigantic red heart on it. _ **"Toreador-ah, ha-ha-ha-ha-haaa!"**_ He sang out. _**"I do not know! The rest of the words! Beeeecause I am only a pre-teen! But I heard the song upon a screeeeeen! I'll learn to sing the words...in proper cleft! Thank you F-N-A-FFFFF!"**_

Twirling around with the frying pan that had the eggs in it, he brought them over to the table his parents were sitting at, serving them both with that same big smile, winking cheerily at them as they smiled back as best they could, blankets wrapped around them. The two were now over 70, and regrettably had developed full blown metastatic lung cancer. It was hard for them to eat, their cough was horrific and sounded as though they were hacking up their own lungs, and worse still, they'd begun coughing up blood.

But there wasn't anything they could do. They couldn't pay for treatment. Though the state of Connecticut provided a great deal of services to the elderly, lung cancer treatments were highly expensive all the same. They couldn't pay the amount left over after Medicare had done its work, for it would require multiple treatments. So all they could do was manage the disease as best they could.

But they weren't managing it, and deep down, Anthony knew it. He tried to overlook it as he finished putting the scrambled eggs on their plate, putting some on his own before bringing the frying pan back to the stove and taking off his apron and top hat. But then his mother spoke up.

"Son...we need to talk." She managed to mumble out, Anthony sitting down across from her as she munched a little on the eggs before swallowing them down. "You know how h...hard it is for us to admit this, but we're not going to be around forever. And we want you to learn how to take care of yourself." Maria Vardalos insisted with a nod of her head.

"I'm trying! I've even got a little part time job at the Mount Ebott Science Facility, remember?" Anthony said, shaking his head back and forth, green eyes staring into his mother's own deep brown ones. Eyes such a unique shade of brown they were almost red. "Just like you suggested."

"There was another reason we asked you to do that. It wasn't just so you'd learn how to be a man." His father Nicholas insisted. He scratched at the ends of his mustache, a nervous habit he'd always had, before finally speaking up again. "You know they've taken to studying what supposedly is inside the mountain. They had told you they'd had regular interactions with...monsters. Not so much anymore, evidently, but it had happened, and they had the video evidence to prove it."

Nicholas Vardalos leaned back in his chair, closing his green eyes. "You also know you had a sister that you never got to know. One who went down into the mountain and when she was brought back she...she..." He began trembling and coughing, trying to cover his mouth as Anthony put a hand on his Dad's arm, looking concerned. "No, I-I can finish. Our daughter met with monsters. We're sure that's what happened to her when she ran away. And we believe they killed her. The autopsy made it clear she'd been poisoned. You've found out so much already about their world from the time you've spent in the facility, but...we want you to find out who did it. If you can do this one more thing for us...please find out who killed our daughter, Anthony. And try to avenge her."

"We didn't do a lot right by her. She wasted so much time in a world that wasn't with people. Wishing she was someone else because she viewed what she was as something..." Maria cringed. "...evil. She kept talking about how awful humanity was to monsters, how she wished she'd been born one...we should have been more open to her. Taken her to counseling. But we didn't see the signs."

"So we tried to do right by you. And I think-" Nicholas began coughing madly, a burst of blood hacking over his hands as Anthony's eyes widened, but Nicholas smiled all the same, red splattered on his smile. "I think we did a good job with you, Anthony. We've...we've been good parents, right?"

"The best I've ever known." Anthony insisted. "I promise I'll find out what happened. I'll make things right." He said, taking his father and mother's hands, nodding at them. "I'll pack up for my job tomorrow and slip into the cave when they're not looking."

"It'll be dangerous. Be careful." Maria insisted. "We don't want to lose another one of our precious children. Not when God gave us another chance."

Anthony smiled. "Aww, don't worry, Mom. I'll be alright." He said, heading to his room to begin packing. As he entered the bedroom and its soft blue walls, he turned on his computer and booted up Itunes to play some music left over from the room's previous owner as he stared at a picture of his family...next to a picture of the sister he'd never gotten to know.

"Thanks for leaving so much behind." He admitted. "The computer, the music, the videos...I never got to know you, but I feel like I've known you all my life because of what you left me." He told the picture in the frame. "I'll find out what happened to you." He said, looking around the room and humming a bit before the song reached the chorus and he began to sing along, the words echoing out through the house, just as they'd once done before when SHE had sang them long ago.

 _ **I can't staaaaay! Tomorrow I'll be on-my-waaaay!**_

 _ **So don't expect to find me sleepin' in my bed!**_

 _ **Cuz when you wake up...I won't be theeeeeere!**_

 _ **I won't be theeeeeere!**_

The next day, Anthony was at Mt. Ebott's research facility, sneaking through the hallway towards the security system. He inched past the lounge, overhearing the voices within and gave a tiny little peek inside. Yep. There they were. Mr and Mrs. Lewis were talking extensively with the now also rather old family members of the children who'd gone missing in Mt. Ebott. All now had something in common with each other, for Mr and Mrs. Lewis had lost their own child as well. The dinosaur-esque scientist Alphys had genuinely tried to break the news gently to them when the accident had happened, and they'd tried to keep up a steady rapport after but...there'd been no point, in time. The machine Christa had wanted to help make with them had been broken irrevocably.

There wouldn't be any peaceful solution. So Asgore had, with a heavy heart, ordered Alphys to shut down communication with the facility. She'd said her goodbyes, Sans staring solemnly over her shoulder before the feed had cut, leaving Mr and Mrs. Lewis alone with shadows and dust. The only comfort they now took was in sharing their pain with those who had also lost children to the Underground. Sure, they kept up their sensor experiments. Sure they'd send down tiny cameras once in a while. But it was quickly just becoming one thing: getting lost in grief.

Anthony so badly wanted to just hug them all, and to tell them it'd be alright. But he knew that wouldn't really cheer them up. He wished he knew how to make things right for them. But not even his chocolate chip brownies cheered them up. Chocolate Chip brownies! How could you go **wrong** with that?

Still...he just stared sadly into the lounge as the adults all sipped on some coffee, looking at home videos on a big screen before he inched past the lounge and into the security room, freezing at the brown-haired, green eyed girl who was sitting in the chair. She slowly turned around, hands resting on the armrests, cowboy hat over her head as she folded her arms over her chest. "Well. Look what we got here." Bonnie Hatfield-McCoy said.

"Wait...your hair." Anthony murmured, Bonnie taking a long lock of hair that hung down over her cheek and flicking it. "I thought it was yellow n' stuff."

"I didn't add the dye this week." She said. "Or my contacts. I met this real nice guy and I want to look how I used to look." She said, slowly turning to the side to look at a large mirror on the wall. "I'm not a natural blonde nor a natural blue-eyed doll. Heck, ain't a lot about me that's "natural", I reckon."

She stared at her reflection, smiling sadly. "I miss my parents." She said. "It helps bein' up here and helpin' these folks. Helps to run the church down in Simsbury. Still, it don't quite take away how I feel. But this guy I've met? He...he makes me feel special in the right way. And I think he'll help. When you find someone you really love, then...it might not fill a hole the same WAY another did, but it'll still fill it all the same."

"...could, um...that is..." Anthony stammered, Bonnie giving him a look.

"Y'all wanna go down there cuz yer parents asked, didn't they?" Bonnie inquired. "Ever since their kid done died, they've wanted to know how it happened. Well...far be it from me to deny a dyin' man and woman their last request." She said, flicking a few switches on a nearby control panel and leaning back in the chair. "The camera feed's on a loop and the force field's down. Ain't nothin' stopping you."

GLOMP. A gigantic hug from Anthony that made the teenage girl blush. "Oh, thank you, thank you!" he happily whispered before swiftly bolting from the room with his large backpack and belt, his favorite pan banging against his sides as it hung from the belt, Bonnie shaking her head in amusement.

"Pa always told me Italians were real passionate. It's why they love to hug."

She bit her lip, a face from a long time ago drifting up before her as she glowered quietly, gazing at the cave, and thinking of a girl with a face so eerily similar to Anthony's.

"And why they love to STAB."

...

...

...

... "Howdy!"

Anthony had been very, very surprised to see the flower that was now looking at him, with a big ol' cheery face on his features and a spring in its step. Well, spring in its STEM, more likely. It bobbed its head back and forth, grinning broadly at him. "I'm Flowey! Flowey the Flower!" It remarked at him as Anthony laid on the bed of golden flowers which had cushioned his fall. He groaned a bit, still sore, as he stood up, taking the backpack off and looking through it, Flowey seeing his face.

REALLY seeing his face.

The flower's eyes bugged out slightly, mouth hanging open a little before he shook his head, Anthony sighing in relief. "Phew. Nothing broke. Good thing I planned ahead." He said as he took out a small telescope, using it to peer up, up, at the hole he'd fallen through. "Ah, there they are."

"Th...there what are?" Flowey asked nervously, one eyebrow raised before Anthony put the telescope down and grinned.

"The stars came out tonight."

"You can see the stars from here? I really can't see much of anything. Y'know. _FLOWER_." Flowey muttered as he looked away, "harrumphing" and crossing petals over his "chest".

"Here." Anthony said, sitting down next to Flowey and setting up the easily-compactable telescope for him. "I brought it just in case I had to see a real long way!"

Flowey carefully slid over to the end of the telescope, feeling it over before returning to the front and putting his face forth onto the eyepiece. Sure enough, he could see them, hanging in the night sky, and he almost choked as he gripped the telescope in his petals, his body shaking. He could see them, SEE them, those soft, tiny points of light, warmly glittering back at him. Adjusting the telescope to turn a bit, he stopped when he saw what he'd really been hoping to see, even more so than the stars.

The moon. The big, beautiful moon. He stared at it, mouth agape, Anthony smiling over at him as he tilted his head to the side, red hair flopping a bit over his forehead. "Want me to focus in for you?" He asked.

"...yes." Flowey managed to get out, Anthony adjusting the telescope as Flowey just sat there and stared. "I...I've never seen it before. But...but that's the moon, isn't it?" He said, his voice much more quiet and reserved than normal.

"Yeah."

"...my, um...a...a very good friend of mine once said humans had gone to the moon. Is that true?"

"Oh, yeah. A bunch of times. We now built a base up there about five years back and we began colonizing Mars." Anthony admitted. "But no matter how many times we see it, looking up at the moon doesn't get old for us. It's just so...pretty." He said.

Flowey kept staring at it, silence permeating the darkness of the ruins before he spoke. "I never got to see any of this before. I can't see a lot from down here."

"Well I'm really tired." Anthony yawned. "You wanna keep watching while I catch some Z's?" he asked, taking out a pillow as Flowey nodded quietly, continuing to stare as Anthony looked up at the opening to the cave himself, humming a little tune before he began to softly sing, Flowey tilting his head a bit in the child's direction.

 _ **Short steps...deep breath. Everything is alright!**_

 _ **Chin up! I can't...step into the spotlight!**_

 _ **She said..."I'm sad". Somehow without any words!**_

 _ **I just...stood there! Searching for an answeeer!**_

 _ **When this world is noooo moooore...**_

 _ **The moon is all we'll see!**_

 _ **And I'll ask you to fly away with meee!**_

 _ **Until the stars all fall doooown, they empty from the sky!**_

 _ **But I don't mind!**_

 _ **If you're with me,**_

 _ **then everything's alriiiiight!**_

Anthony's eyes closed, Flowey staring at his face, seeing not him, but someone else. And he gripped the telescope in his petals, body quietly shaking as Anthony drifted off to sleep.

Flowey couldn't really feel anything.

But right now...he was coming damn, damn close. Because he kept thinking about HER.

 _"Mooom! Daaaad! Look!"_

 _The little goat-like monster held the young human up as best he could, his face warm and soft as he approached his parents "Summer Home", as it were. They shambled past the tree as a bearded, cheery figure stood there in the doorway with his wife, the two's eyes widening at the sight before them. A human had fallen down, a human with a long-sleeve green shirt that had a single yellow stripe upon it, and brown hair that fell down around her face._

 _"This human fell down from the surface. I think she mighta broken her leg?" The king's son insisted. "Can we get a bandage?"_

 _"That would make me feel better, yeah." The girl admitted. "Ooooh. It **stiiiings**."_

 _"We'd be happy to help. Would you also like some tea?" The King, Asgore Dreemurr, offered._

 _"Never had tea before. Is it good?" The girl asked. "My daddy always said tea was "sissy drinks", a "liberal food"." She sighed._

 _"Oh, that's not very nice." The queen, Toriel Dreemurr, sighed, putting her hands on her hips. "Whatever is your name child?"_

 _"My name's-"_

...

...

...

...the next morning, Anthony found that the flower-esque monster wasn't there anymore, the telescope left where it was as he scratched his head, a little confused. But he shrugged, putting the telescope away in his pack as a voice rang out through the air. "Oh my! Another youth has fallen down?"

Anthony turned, seeing a white-furred monster with almost faintly religious clothes walking towards him. "A pleasure to meet you, little one. I am Toriel, Caretaker of-"

She stopped when she saw his face, her mouth agape. "...oh...my, I...I'm sorry, you...you just look so familiar to me." She murmured. "Tell me...whatever is your name, child?"

 _"Whatever is your name, child?"_

"My name's-"

 _"My name's-"_

"Anthony-"

 _"Chara-"_

"Vardalos." 

Toriel almost fainted dead away. "D-Did you say VARDALOS?" She asked, mouth hanging open as she stared at Anthony. "I...I mean...that name, it's...I had a child so long ago who had that same name. Is-is it common?"

Anthony blinked. Could this be the sister he'd never gotten to know? "Was she a girl named Chara?"

" _ **Yes!**_ Oh, yes." Toriel said, nodding as Anthony held a hand up.

"She was my sister. I never got to know her, Mom and Dad had her waaaay before me." He admitted, shaking the stunned Toriel's hand. "Could you tell me about her?"

"Yes, I...I'll tell you everything I can. Please, come this way and stay close to me. The Ruins can be quite dangerous." Toriel insisted as Anthony followed after her, staying by her side as she took notice of the frying pan he had hanging from his belt. "Ah, my child, why do you have a frying pan attached to you?"

"Oh, it's my lucky pan." Anthony insisted as he took it off his belt and held it up with a big ol' grin. "I make all my best dishes in this."

"You cook?"

"Is the Pope Catholic?" Anthony laughed. "Would you like me to make you some of my famous chocolate chip brownies? I got the mix, but I'll need some eggs to go with them."

"Oh, I DID have eggs back at home, but used them up for a snail pile." Toriel admitted with a nod as they made their way into the many purple halls of the ruins, Toriel bringing Anthony to a large overlook, gesturing out at an immense expanse of what appeared to be abandoned homes, shops and other buildings. "This is where Monsterkind once lived before we moved deeper still into the expanse of the Underground. There's still many supplies here thanks to the magic that remains, but we've got to go and get them. One moment."

She spread her arms wide, eyes glowing as she began to speak in what was clearly Latin. With a THWOMP-THWOMP-THWOMP, stairways jutted out from the wall leading down to the floor below where all the buildings lay, and she smiled, turning back to Anthony and giving a bow. "After you?"

"Oh, no, please! Ladies first." Anthony said, bowing back as she giggled and descended the stairs, Anthony hopping after her. "Was that really magic?" He asked. "That's so amazing. I wish humans could do that." He sighed.

"I've known a few humans that could." Toriel admitted as they made their way past the faded brick and stone, paint jobs being slowly chipped away by time as she sighed. "They never stayed long, but each has remained with me, inside my heart."

"Ah, _**they'll be in your heaaaart.**_ " Anthony sang out, Toriel blinking in surprise as he held his arms behind his head and smiled up at her. "Sorry, I just love to sing. I do that when I'm nervous."

"My child, why are you nervous?" Toriel inquired as Anthony nervously gulped.

"Well...it IS kinda big and dark and spooky in here." He admitted, glancing around at the ghost town that was the city. An unpleasant, unnatural wind seemed to be blowing, dust trickling through the streets at the corner of his eye as Toriel looked about.

"It is indeed rather odd that there's no other monsters here. Usually I find at least a few Whimsuns and Froggits hopping about. Ah, well. We shall soon be at the nearest store." She insisted, the two continuing down the street before turning into another one on the right, stopping in place at what they saw before them.

There, blocking the way, was a sight Toriel didn't often see. An odd-looking, goopy-armed group of THINGS with perpetually shifting face was before her, trying to hold themselves up like a kind of disturbing lava lamp with arms. Their faces kept twisting about, trying to decide what they wanted to look like as a bug-like, clown-faced tiny-winged insectoid creature stood nearby. It had stubby little arms and was giggling, with a big red nose and eye shadow on its face. "Hee hee hee hee!" It giggled. "Honk honnnk!"

"Oh my." Toriel sighed. "This is a problem." She admitted. "Moldessas and a Migospel."

"What do they do?" Anthony nervously asked, standing behind Toriel, eyes wide as the Moldessas waved their long, slimy, stubby arms about. It's face shifted and twisted as it did so, and suddenly bursts of energy shot forth from above its head, shooting through the air before exploding into tiny little specks of smaller energy that whizzed forth, racing them as Toriel gasped.

"THAT! Stay close to me!" She proclaimed, holding her hands up as she concentrated. Her hands glowed with pinkish/purple light and a wall of flames popped up around them to stave off the assault. But then the Migospel giggled and twirled about.

"Send in the cloooowns!" It proclaimed, holding a stubby hand to its chest, the other held high as hordes of flies swarmed forth from out of nowhere. Toriel and Anthony ducked to avoid the swarm as it began to circle high above them, waiting to swoop down and attack, buzzing loudly in their ears. Anthony frowned, giving the clown-like insect a glowering look.

"Hey, that's not very nice!" He yelled out as Migospel just giggled.

 _ **"When you're a cloooown! Nobody takes you seriouslyyyyy!"**_ It sang, the Moldessas shaking their arms in unison as the swarms kept coming, Toriel keeping the burning wall of fire steadily roaring.

"We'll never get past them with this steady stream of flies they're sending our way." She winced. "If we could get rid of the Moldessas, Migospel will be all alone, and he'll feel less inclined to fight. It's in his family's blood, they're not really good at facing anything on their own. They have to rely on others to feel any sense of bravery or purpose."

Anthony looked over at the Moldessas as one felt over its own face with it's arm/ears as it kept shifting and twisting and it sadly sighed, head/chest hung as an idea came to him. "Are you, um...trying to "put your face on"?" He asked.

The swarm of flies began to abate a bit, as they looked at Anthony, the Moldessa he was addressing holding a stubby ear-arm up to it's face. "Shhhh." It said. "Don't...I...I know I don't look...don't look right."

"Aw, I don't think it's that bad at all." He insisted. "Toriel?"

Getting what he wanted to do, Toriel dropped the ring, Anthony racing over to the Moldessa and kneeling down, hands going to her face as he began adjusting it. The flies began fading away as they watched Anthony fix up her face. "See? It's kinda like...well, like a blind person reading Braille."

"What's...it saying?" The Moldessa asked as Anthony finished his work and stepped back.

"A...N...N..E...H...A...T...H...A...W...A...Y."

"WOW! Really?!" The Moldessa proclaimed happily, holding her stubs up and beaming as the others crowded around Anthony, making slimy, squelching, cheering noises.

"Do me next! Do me next!"

"Oh please, please, do me too!"

"Don't forget me!"

"Hey miss Toriel, get in on this!" Anthony offered as he knelt down by another Moldessa, Toriel walking over as the Migospel stared in surprise before hanging its head in depression.

 _ **"Riiiiiiidi! Pagliaaaaaaccio! Sul tuo amore infraaaaaantoooo!"** _ It proclaimed, slowly ambling off in depression as Toriel adjusted the face of a Moldessa herself.

"There! Now you look like Scott Baio!"

"PHEW. Just androgynous enough." The very deep-voiced Moldessa remarked, wiping its brown as Toriel blinked in surprise.

"Oh! I thought you were all...well...women."

"Not exactly." The Moldessa she was talking to remarked with a shrug. "It's a lonely position, being the only one of your species who seems drastically aware of how truly different they are from the others."

Many, many miles away, a singular, cat-like monster with fairly long black hair shot up from its nap, and the Temmie beast known as Bob smiled a bit. "Somehow, I feel **much** better about myself this fine morning."

"Hoi!" Another cat-like monster announced, cheerily patting its paws together as it smiled at Bob from across Temmie Village. "I'm Temmie! You Temmie?"

"My name is BOB. **BOB!** I have an  identity! I am not just another fuzzy human-petting drone!" He proclaimed.

"Yes u r!" Temmie giggled, paws over her mouth as Bob groaned, and decided to go back to bed.

Soon, Toriel and Anthony were back at her home and in the kitchen, Anthony getting to work making brownies for Toriel as she in turn made some fried escargot for him. Whipping up the batter, Anthony hummed a delightful tune as Toriel warmly smiled over at him from the stove. "I cannot tell you how glad I am to have company after so long. I'm so glad you want to stay here. There's so many things I'm eager to show you." She remarked as she pushed the snails over in the pan and added the garlic, Anthony carefully sprinkling in the chocolate chips to the batter. "And I do sincerely hope you like it here."

"Your stove is very clean!" Anthony complimented.

"Fire magic." She remarked, waggling her pointed digits in the air and beaming. "There's so much I want to share with you." Toriel admitted wistfully. "So many old books. My favorite bug-hunting spot...I'm even working on a curriculum. I'd like to become a teacher one day."

"Aw, I used to hate teachers." Anthony sighed as he shook his head, putting the brownies inside of the oven before stepping back, hands on his hips as Toriel snapped her fingers, and the oven turned on. "But that's because I was homeschooled and I used to hate my parents for being so clingy. Then I realized why." He murmured, his cheery tone and faint accent becoming quieter. "Losing Chara was really hard on them. They felt like they failed her. So they wanted to make sure they never did anything wrong with me."

Toriel saw the expression on his face and she approached him, gently patting his shoulder. "Would you like to take a nap while I watch over the food? We can talk more about Chara when you wake up."

"I...yeah, a...a nap would be good." Anthony admitted softly as he made his way down the long, pale yellow halls, heading for the room Toriel had made up for him and curling up in the bed, resting his sleepy head against the pillow as soft slumber began to sink into his skull.

And faint voices began to drift through his dreams.

 _You cannot give up just yet!_

 _Chara! CHARA!_

 _Chara, please, don't give up!_

 _Chara, stay determined! Our fate rests on you..._

 _Chara, pl-please...please wake up. I...I don't like this plan anymore. I...No, I...I said I'd never doubt you. Six, right? We just have to get six-_

Anthony woke with a start and a shudder as he held his head in one hand, panting slightly. He had promised his parents to learn what happened to Chara.

Why did he have a feeling that they would have been better off never knowing?

Unbeknownst to him, though, someone else was watching over him. They'd been collecting notes, taking careful care to inscribe all they knew about the many monsters of the Underground down. And that someone now sat on the edge of the bed, as another Soul sat nearby.

"He's of her blood." Hope admitted, the young African American spirit looking up at WD Gaster. "Chara's trying to call out to his soul."

"Will she succeed?" Gaster inquired quietly.

"Oh, she's gonna talk to him. I'm sure. But she's going to be surprised by what she finds." Hope said.

"You have gained much wisdom since dying."

"I'm a patient girl. I had a lot of time to think."

"Tell me, though." Gaster turned, his cracked face looking deep into the still-gaunt visage of the young black child as Anthony exited the bedroom. "How are you able to be before me? To go beyond the lab? The others remain there, trapped within close proximity of their containers."

"I'm much, much stronger than I look. Your brother can admit to that. Even at my low health, I survived him coming right out with his strongest attack." Hope remarked. "And if I have to wait centuries, then...that's okay. If it means I can pass on what I can to the ones who really need it."

"Will Anthony need it?"

"No. He's got something in him that will help him get far." Hope said, a smile spreading across her face as they walked out to the hallway and saw the red-haired child give Toriel a gigantic hug.

"Love."


	9. The Darkness Keeps Growing

**Author's Note: Much like how each of the children have their own unique gifts to offer, so are there other overarching themes I've enjoyed incorporating. And one very big one I've begun working on is the idea of Chara slowly returning...being called back. And much like before, her influence is becoming strong. Can Anthony resist this devil in disguise? Or will he finally be forced to follow Flowey's advice, when faced with someone who's so close to being a remorseless killer? At any rate, please, review, favorite and enjoy this latest chapter.**

The next few months were some of the best that Anthony Vardalos had ever had. Toriel would regale him with tales of Asriel and Chara and what life had been like when the sister he'd never gotten to know had been around. Anthony would lie in Toriel's lap as she rested against the thick black tree in her front yard, watching new leaves slowly sprout over the months, and for once, they didn't seem to fall off. Toriel would caress his hair and they would spend hours singing, their voices drifting through the ruins, bringing warmth and comfort to the denizens.

But though the days were relaxing, comforting and filled with joy and fun, the nights were taking a toll on Anthony. He kept having dreams. Dreams about Chara and Asriel.

The next few months were some of the best that Anthony Vardalos had ever had. Toriel would regale him with tales of Asriel and Chara and what life had been like when the sister he'd never gotten to know had been around. Anthony would lie in Toriel's lap as she rested against the thick black tree in her front yard, watching new leaves slowly sprout over the months, and for once, they didn't seem to fall off. Toriel would caress his hair and they would spend hours singing, their voices drifting through the ruins, bringing warmth and comfort to the denizens.

But though the days were relaxing, comforting and filled with joy and fun, the nights were taking a toll on Anthony. He kept having dreams. Dreams about Chara and Asriel.

And he had a feeling he knew where Asriel was.

He had waited for Flowey to pop up by the opening to the ruins when he approached, and sat down next to him. "Hey, Asriel." Anthony spoke up cheerily, Flowey stiffening as he slowly turned to glare at the human child.

"How do you know that I'm him!?"

"I've been having dreams, lately." Anthony admitted as he munched on a chocolate bar, offering some to Flowey, who turned away and "harrumphed". "And I recognized your voice. I finally realized where I'd heard it before. And I figured there was a reason you kept looking at me longingly when you're stalking me through the ruins."

Flowey growled as Anthony sighed, hanging his head. "Look, why don't you just...tell your mom and dad you're okay? Don't you think they deserve to know? Don't you want them to know? I dunno how you got be a flower but...surely being honest is better than never telling them anything."

"You think I didn't tell them before? I told them six times once. But then I RESET, and they forgot. I did it all. So...so much. But there's no point anymore." Flowey murmured, Anthony blinking in surprise.

"...huh?"

"I guess you can call it a gift left over from Chara." Flowey murmured. "I have an ability. An ability that sprang from when I...came back." Flowey sighed. "I woke up, in the garden. I was so scared. Couldn't feel my arms and legs. My entire body had turned into a flower! Mom! Dad! Somebody help me!" I called out..." Flowey stiffened and his tone turned venomous. "BUT NOBODY CAME."

Anthony shivered as Flowey slowly turned his head, gazing intently at him. "Eventually, though, the king found me. I told him who I was...what happened. He held me in his arms, tears in his eyes, and he told me "There, there. Everything is going to be alright. He was so emotional. But for some reason, I...I couldn't feel anything. Nothing at all."

Flowey slowly shook his head back and forth. "Nothing...at all. Just...nothing. I soon realized I didn't feel anything about anyone. My compassion was gone, my...Kindness...was gone." He said as he stared into Anthony's soft green eyes. And believe me!" He laughed. "It ain't like I wasn't trying! I wasted WEEKS with that stupid king! Vainly hoping to feel something, but...it became too much for me. So I ran away, reached the Ruins. And I found my mother. I thought "Surely SHE can make me feel something"!"

Flowey began to laugh. He began to laugh and laugh, so hard tears began to form in his eyes. "She failed. Ha...ha...ha...they were useless. I was so despondent! I just...wanted to love someone! ANYONE! And I got so low. You might no believe this, but I decided I...couldn't stand living like this. I didn't want to be alive anymore. A world without love. Without...Chara...I...I..." He hesitated. "I erased myself from existence. And I succeeded. But then..." His tone got more quiet, more...terrified, his face becoming even paler.

"Then I became apprehensive. I got scared. I started to wonder. If you haven't a soul, then what happens when you're gone?!" Flowey muttered, his body shaking madly. "A primal thought began to burn through me! NO! No, I...I didn't wanna die! And...and then...I was back. I was back in the garden. At a...save point, I called it. Like...like one of the games Chara and I played sometimes. And I realized I could RESET. I could go back in time. Change things. But only to that point. So I began experimenting. Again and again, I brought myself to the edge of death. But I found I could go back over and over. No matter how close I got. And at first I used this power for good."

Flowey stared up, up at the opening to the mountain. "I became friends with everyone. I solved all their problems effortlessly. And their companionship was amusing." He continued. "For a while. But...as time went on, people became predictable. I started to realize every answer they'd give. It got so...boring. And then I got curious. I wondered what would happen if I KILLED them..."

Anthony nervously rose up, and Flowey's grin faced him, the work of pure demons.

"And it was so...exhilarating. So freeing. So _LIBERATING_!" Flowey laughed. "But even that got tiring. Ahhh, but then! Then you HUMANS came in. Now it's all so, so different. And I want to know what you'll do when you meet a killer! When you meet someone who you can't just **hug** into friendship!" He told Anthony, slowly sinking into the ground. "Do you think you'll DIE and DIE **AND DIE?!** "

And with a PLOP...

 _"Let's find out..."_

He was gone.

During one day, he was in the kitchen with Toriel, cutting up dough to make into a snail pie for her with a kitchen knife when he cringed, a headache burning into his brain as he put the knife down and gripped his skull, flinching slightly as he could hear that same familiar voice...

 _"Six, right? We just have to get six souls. Then we can free everyone. Break the barrier and free everyone..."_

Anthony stiffened at this. At long last, he'd finally heard the end of that conversation that kept playing out over and over in his dreams. And at long last, he could see and hear Chara as she stood before him.

 _"I've been slowly getting stronger the longer you've been down here. At last, I finally might have found a good host. Blood calling out to blood."_ She spoke up.

"You...wanted six souls...?" Anthony murmured, green eyes looking the spirit of Chara over as her spectral form sat on the kitchen countertop, nonchalantly bouncing her head back and forth. "But...WHY?" He asked.

 _"To free the monsters. To break down the barrier. Don't they deserve to go free?"_

"I want to break the barrier too, it seems cruel keeping the monsters down here, but...but taking people's souls is..." Anthony trailed off.

 _"The monsters down here were perfectly willing to do that. And were willing to take them from kids. At least I wasn't going to wait meekly, hoping some human never came but if they ever did, THEN take their soul like Asgore."_ Chara snorted. _"And any monster outside the ruins is going to want to take your Soul too. They had a chance for freedom with me, and they failed. They had another chance with that girl with the notebook, when it appeared like she would make it so that the war never happened. Well...third time's the charm."_ Chara remarked. _"This time they're going with Plan B. If you want to break the barrier, then work alongside me, and be ready to kill. Because those outside the ruins will be, whether you're ready or not."_

"...I'll just...stay here in the ruins, then." Anthony muttered. "It'll be fine, I...I..." He trailed off.

But he knew he couldn't. Hanging his head as Chara slowly faded away, Anthony shook it back and forth, clutching his skull. He had promised his mother and father that he'd find out what became of Chara and come back. He'd PROMISED. You didn't ever break a promise.

But in truth, even though Anthony knew he should eventually leave, he was genuinely terrified. Anthony was nervous around the monsters of the ruins already. And the ones outside them were supposed to be even more powerful still. He couldn't fight worth a damn. What was he going to do?

That night, he and Toriel were in the kitchen, Anthony sprinkling over spices onto the pie as he smiled warmly at her, clear concern still etched on his face. "So what you wanna do is sprinkle them verrrry gingerly, just like this." He reasoned. "And that works for any pie with spices in it. For meat dishes though, you wanna go like this." He said, moving over to the roast she'd gotten for him from the ruins's abandoned stores. "Ba-BAM." He tossed spices onto the meat in a giant handful like it was a shotgun blast. "It's zazzy."

"I'm learning so many delightful recipes from you!" She remarked cheerily, clasping her clawed hands together and beaming as Anthony nervously smiled and looked over himself in the mirror, at the chef's hat he had, the apron that read "Kiss the Cook" over a big old heart...all gifts from his parents for Christmas when they'd realized how much he loved to help them with cooking. Gifts he had repaid by making them the finest and most delicious chocolate chip cookies they'd ever had.

He approached the mirror, looking himself over and he realized that though he loved Toriel, he...

He wanted to go home.

"...Toriel, um...is there...a way to get out of the Underground?" He finally managed to ask, Toriel dropping the knife she had as it clattered to the ground, and she slowly turned her head to stare at him.

"I don't understand. I...I thought I've been good to you." She murmured, looking down at the floor and holding a hand up to her cheek. "Why do you want to leave?"

"I promised my mom and dad that I'd tell them what happened to Chara. You can't ever go back on a promise." Anthony said. "I don't want them to never know what happened to my sister. They're always blaming themselves for her coming down here, if I tell them Chara wasn't killed but just died by accident, they'll feel so much better."

But deep down, Anthony wasn't sure it was an accident. Chara's talk of souls had made him think that Chara had allowed himself to die in the name of freeing the monsters. Still, at least the goal was somewhat noble in a sad, twisted sense. And the truth was always better than a lie. So if he had to tell them that, then so be it. But he had to tell them. Had to go find them. HAD to return home.

Toriel stared for a long time...and then covered her face with her hands, making her way to the living room as Anthony heard soft, sad sobbing. Cringing, he made his way into the pale yellow living room, Toriel sobbing into her palms as he nervously approached.

"I really thought this would be different." She whispered. "I connected with you in a way I hadn't with anyone else in so long. But...I...I can't bring myself to say no. I know what it feels like to...to lose your child. And to want answers." She murmured, the goat-like monster shaking her tiny-horned head back and forth before finally pulling her hands away from her face. "Dearest Anthony...I will tell you how to reach the exit to the Barrier." Toriel told him, Anthony nodding quietly. "There is a monster who runs a ferry. He can get you to a natural dock that's stationed at the CORE, where the palace is. And within the palace is the exit from the Underground, blocked by the barrier. You shall be able to pass through there, if all goes well."

She then felt a gentle, tender hug embrace her from behind as Anthony shifted, and came around to hug her more properly, and Toriel in turn embraced him just as deeply, laughing softly.

"Ha-ha-ha...I...I don't want to let go." She whispered, finally releasing him before she slowly made her way towards the downward stairs, and the exit of the ruins, resting her hand against it.

"... _I don't want to let go_..." She murmured, before a knock she was all-too-familiar with came from the other end.

"Heya! Knock knock!"

"...who is there?" Toriel mumbled out.

"A broken pencil."

"...a broken pencil...who?"

"Nevermind, it's pointless."

"H-heh..." Toriel quietly laughed. "...sorry, I'm...it's just..."

"Hey, you can tell me anything, lady." The voice from the other end spoke up, it's voice deep but warm. "C'mon. What's wrong?"

"...if a human ever comes through this door...could you please, please promise me something?" Toriel sobbed out, resting herself against the exit to the ruins, her body shaking, the tears falling openly. "Watch over them and protect them...will you not?"

For a few minutes, there was nothing but silence. But then...

A gentle knock back.

"Lady, someone like you who sincerely likes bad jokes?...you got an integrity a guy can't say "no" to."

...

...

...

... _"They'll kill you if they get the chance. You can't let them do that."_ Chara's voice rang out in Anthony's mind as he made his way through the snowy path of Snowdin, wishing he hadn't brought that knife. But no, Chara had insisted. It was for his own protection. A frying pan wouldn't solve everything. _"In this world, it's kill or be killed."_

"You don't know that." Anthony mumbled as the cold air nipped at him before he found himself approaching a sentry post that appeared to be abandoned. Shrugging, he walked past it before a voice rang out.

 **"knock-knock."**

Anthony stopped in place, but spoke back. "Who's there?"

 **"...boo."**

"...boo hoo?"

And then, there he was, standing right in front of Anthony. A short, squat, kinda tubby skeletal monster in a thick blue jacket and fuzzy slippers. **"don't cry, it's only a joke."**

Anthony stepped back nervously, but then the joke actually sank in and he smiled. "Heh. You like jokes, huh?" He asked.

 **"of course. the name's Sans the skeleton."** Sans said, extending a hand as he looked Anthony over, Anthony taking the hand-

PHHHHBBBBBTTTT.

 **"woopie-cushion in the hand trick. doesn't ever get old."** Sans laughed as Anthony frowned.

"Ugh. Fart jokes?" He sighed. "Couldn't you have a bit more class than that?"

 **"i COULD, but it wouldn't be as much fun. say, you look familiar. have we...met before?"** Sans inquired, Anthony shaking his head.

"No, but you might have met my sister, Chara Vardalos. I'm her brother. My parents kind of sent me down here to find out what happened to her, and now I gotta get back home." Anthony said as Sans led him through the woods so dreary, dark and deep as Sans nodded in understanding.

 **"i understand completely, kid. tryin' to do right by family goes a long way with me. blood bonds are strong."**

An idea came to Anthony. A small grin stretching across his face. "Say, Sans, speaking of family, did you know that we humans discovered that diarrhea is actually hereditary?" He remarked as Sans looked at him, blinking in surprise.

 **"really?"**

"Yeah. It runs in your genes (jeans)." Anthony said with a big, goofy grin on his face, Sans suddenly laughing uproariously at this as he wiped a tear from his eye.

 **"ohhhh, that is BAD, kid, that is BAD. but I love it!"** Sans laughed as he clapped the kid on the back. **"you're a lot more fun than your sis."** Sans said. **"i'll help you out however I can. ya wanna get to the riverperson, right? they're this way."** he said, gesturing to their left, Anthony suddenly realizing they were no longer in the woods, but instead were not too far from a town, and he looked about, eyes wide. He was sure they'd been in the middle of a forest only moments ago-

Then Sans blinked, a phone ringing suddenly from his jacket as he picked it out and put it on speaker. **"hello?"** he asked.

"Hello, is this G-oh! Wait! Is this the wrong number?" The odd individual on the other end cheerily asked, Sans blinking a bit as he tilted his head to the side. Why did the voice sound...so familiar?

 **"...yes..."**

 ** _"Ohhhhhhh!"_** The voice sang out, Sans eyes widening. _**"Oh, it's the wrong number! The wrong number song! We're very, very sorry that we got it wrong! Oh, it's the wrong number! The wrong number song! We're very, very sorry that we got it wrong!"**_

 **"are you just gonna keep singing this forever unless I hang up?"** sans quietly asked.

 _ **"Oh, it's the wrong number! The wrong number song! We're very, very sorry that we got it wrong! Oh, it's the wrong number! The wrong number song! We're very, very sorry that we got it wrong! Oh, it's the wrong number-"**_

CLICK. Sans hung up, frowning as he put the phone away. "that does it. i need me a phone with caller ID." He reasoned, as they got inside of the wooden boat of a large, black-robed and black-hooded being who's features Anthony couldn't discern as they nonchalantly turned their head to look their passengers over.

"I am the ferryman. Or perhaps the ferrywoman. It matters not. I will take you wherever I can. Be it Waterfall or Hotland."

"Can you take me to the Core?" Anthony asked, his hopes suddenly dashed as Sans cringed, the Riverperson sighing.

"Regrettably, the dock by the core has long-since burned away. It's now one big, giant pit of fire. Alas." The Riverperson sighed. "I can, however, take you to Hotland. That is not too far from the Core." It spoke up, as Anthony sighed and sat down in the boat with Sans. But unfortunately, even this brief hope would soon be dashed.

Because the boat had to stop at Waterfall, giant boulders blocking the way into Hotland.

"Oh MY." The Riverperson murmured as Sans and the human got out, Sans sighing as he shook his head. "Whatever have we here? I'd best get to work on moving them." It spoke up as Sans shrugged.

 **"listen, kid. You stay here. I'm gonna check to make sure nobody's in the palace at the moment. I think Asgore is currently in the school, teaching the kids about monster history, but I wanna make sure. This way you can get through the barrier without ol' Fuzzybuns catching you. he's a nice guy but...he might not letcha go so easily."** Sans admitted with a shrug, Anthony nodding as he walked in the direction of a nearby pool and sat down by it, waving goodbye as Sans walked off...before seemingly vanishing into the darkness.

"I wonder how he does that..." Anthony admitted, before taking notice of a smell that was wafting through the air not too far away. Following the scent, he made his way towards what was unmistakably a large collection of snails in various sizes, shapes and clothing, and rested himself against the fence that overlooked the snails, blinking in surprise as he stared at the nearby sign.

"Snail Farm"." He read aloud. "...who runs a snail farm?"

"Oh, it's run by Napstablook. It used to get help from his cousin, but she's not been seen around lately." One of the snails remarked as Anthony blinked in surprise. "You, uh...don't wanna eat us, do you?"

"No, not really. My friend Toriel likes to, but...personally, I don't like the taste." Anthony admitted. "I prefer things like fish, actually."

"...maybe you shouldn't say that around her." One of the snails remarked before Anthony suddenly felt a chill fill the air.

"...who's..."her"?" He quietly asked, before a feminine, but quite rough and low voice rang out.

"Behind you."

Anthony stiffened as he whipped around, eyes wide as a fish-woman stood there in a tight-fitting black t-shirt, blue jeans, and with an eyepatch over her left eye as she glared darkly and coldly at him, clawed hands clenched tightly. "You...you look so much like HER. Like that little brat." She whispered, her body shaking furiously.

"Now, look, I-I don't want any trouble..." Anthony muttered as he nervously stepped away from her, hands held up as she cracked her knuckles, suddenly holding a palm up.

"Well that's too bad, because I DO!" She roared out.

Anthony suddenly gasped as a green, floating unmistakable heart suddenly popped up right in front of his chest, and a icy blue spear sailed through the air from the woman's outstretched palm, Anthony diving away just in time to avoid getting speared.

 _"You can't keep dodging forever!"_ Chara's voice rang out in his head.

"You won't be able to dodge forever." The fish-woman growled. "I, Undyne, Head of the Royal Guard, will knock you down! Now here!" She proclaimed, tossing a green spear onto the ground right in front of Anthony as he nervously looked it over, picking it up as she snapped her fingers. Another powerful spear manifested in her hand as she pointed it squarely in his direction. "You won't be able to defeat me until you learn to face danger head on!"

With that, she swept her spear through the air, Anthony feeling rooted to the spot, as if his very feet had been speared through and he was stuck to the ground. He shivered in fear as icy blue spears soared through the air towards him and he winced, cringing as they sliced and stabbed through his arms and shoulders, panting and heaving as Undyne frowned.

"Your soul was already green, so you need to learn to stand up tall and face towards danger! Face me!" She insisted, towering threateningly as she waved her spear through the air again, more shooting towards Anthony. They whizzed through his body, passing out the other side as he cringed, clutching at his chest.

"I...am not...fighting..." He winced. Though magical in nature, the damage was real and it felt like being impaled by actual, burning-hot, yet ice-cold spears.

 _"She will KILL YOU."_ Chara insisted fervently in his head. _"People like her are the people I ran away from back on the surface. People like her don't deserve to go around picking on others. People like her...don't deserve to be alive. KiLl HeR oR sHe WiLl KiLl YoU!"_

"Look. I gave you a spear to block my attacks with. Do I REALLY have to explain this any more clearly?!" Undyne groaned, rolling her eyes. "Just face upwards! It's not hard!" She snarled, smacking her forehead and pulling her face down as Anthony panted and heaved, Undyne swinging her spear at him, knocking him through the air and into the nearby wall, Anthony sliding down and gasping as some blood dribbled out of his mouth.

"AAA! GGGG-GGGGHHH..." He gasped out, cringing as he slowly rose back up, body trembling, shaking his head back and forth. "N-Not...g-gonna...f-fight...d-don't...don't wanna...hurt you..." He muttered. "P-please don't...wanna hurt me..."

 _"She. Will. Kill. You."_ Chara's voice whispered like soft honey in his ear, like a subtle knife digging into his flesh. _"...you need...to fight back."_

Undyne quietly stared back at him, gripping her spear tightly, her voice quiet and softer than normal. "I wanted this to be a fair fight."I thought if I beat you like this...it'd truly show how strong monsters can be. But NOW?"

She let out a roar, clenching her fists tightly as she swung at Anthony again, shoving him up against the wall, her singular eye glittering darkly and coldly as she snarled at him. "I DON'T CARE! I'M NOT YOUR FREAKING KINDERGARTEN TEACHER! Well, unless your Kindergarten teacher does THIS!" She proclaimed, one hand holding the spear that kept Anthony pinned as another fist got held high, intending to strike him in the face.

And then it happened. In desperation, Anthony SHOVED as hard as he could, and then, grabbing the knife he'd brought with him, stabbed forward, Undyne gasping as she dropped her spear onto the ground. It faded as she reeled back, cringing, gripping her gauntleted hand. It hadn't painful so much as just a surprise, but then she saw the mixture of fury and tears on Anthony's face, and a chill ran through her as the red-haired boy held the knife up.

"I tried...to be nice. I TRIED...to be good. I just wanted to go home. But I won't be giving you any more worthless pity. This time, fish..." A voice that **was** and **wasn't** Anthony rang out.

 ** _"I TAKE YOUR OTHER EYE."_**


	10. Killed with Kindness

**Author's Note:**

 **Again, another big thank you to all who have reviewed and who are following or making this story a favorite. I just want you all to know that seeing such notifactions in my email really does make my day. And I love seeing new reviews a lot.**

 **Be forewarned...this chapter will not end how you expect. Because I love subverting expectations. ;)**

* * *

Undyne stared for a long time, blinking in surprise at the young human who was holding the knife up before him. She heard the words echo through the caverns of Waterfall, bouncing off the walls, the echo flowers repeating them endlessly like a sick mantra being drilled into her head as she grit her teeth and held up her hands, a powerful aquamarine spear forming in her grip as she glared intensely back at her foe.

"You. I should have known you'd find some way to crawl back from Hell where you belong. But that's fine. Because a true hero has appeared, Chara. And she's going to knock you down!"

Laughter. Uproarious laughter ringing through the air as Anthony/Chara rushed forward, the knife held up. Undyne swung her spear, the kid ducking and slicing upward, knocking her back slightly before he twisted her body, kicking her even further as he grinned, twirling his knife. "True hero!? You're nothing more than a pompous, self-righteous, arrogant fish who thinks she's so much better than she really is!"

Undyne glowered at that, rushing forward, spear stabbing forth. It whizzed through the air as Anthony/Chara ducked and dived and dipped, dodging her horrendous assault as her singular eye furiously gazed into his own eyes. He kept avoiding the spear tip, moving with the fluidity of a snake before he finally leapt up and spun, kicking her squarely in the face and knocking her back...but only a few steps. She smirked, and then SHE spun around, her foot flying through the air, catching the human on the side.

He went sailing into the nearby fence, bringing it completely down, snails scurrying for their lives at a breakneck speed of almost one half mile an hour, Anthony groaning as he rose up, feeling Chara chuckling inside his head as he shook his head. "That...hurt. I don't like this game..." He muttered before Chara's voice echoed once more.

 _"You need to get her mad. Get her angry. Get her off her game. Find an action that will cause her to lose focus, and you'll be able to wear her down. You can't show her MERCY, after all."_

Anthony gritted his teeth as he quickly rose up from the ground, smacking his chest. "HA! Me Tarzan, King of Jungle! Not afraid of puny spears!" He proclaimed loudly, Undyne frowning a bit.

"Puny?!"

"You couldn't hit the broad side of a barn!" Anthony proclaimed, Undyne holding her spear up as burning icy blue spears manifested in the air, shooting towards Anthony. With swift jumps and twists, he danced about, avoiding the onslaught of spears as the head of the Royal Guard continued tossing them before finally rushing forward.

"GAAAAH! **Die** already, you little brat!" She snarled, Anthony leaping through the air, leapfrogging over her skull and twisting in the air, landing expertly behind her as she whipped around just in time for him to twist and slash at her.

She reeled back again, cringing as she dematerialized the spear she had in her hand, the thing dissolving into tiny little specks of light blue light that faded into the air around her, and then she raced over to a nearby bunch of boulders that had fallen close to the river, making Anthony blink in surprise. "What're you-" He began to say before suddenly he got his answer.

She was SUPLEXING THE BOULDERS. Lifting them up with a mighty roar, you could almost see anime "setting sun" rays bellowing out of her as she let out a "HA-WHOOOOHHHH", tossing the boulders at Anthony.

 _"DODGE OR DIE!"_ Chara's voice shrieked out in his skull.

Anthony ducked to the ground, flopping onto the hard cave floor of Waterfall, cringing at how wet it was, but the first boulder passed over him. He then rolled away, dodging the next one...

And the next one, and the next one, but the LAST one got him, sending him spiralling through the air, collapsing into the fence that held the "Thundersnail" racing track. The snails all slithered over to him with unusual speed, Anthony groaning and moaning as he rose up, covered in grime and ground and cuts.

"I'm truly on my own. No direction home. Like a...rolling stone." He managed to wheeze out, rising to his feet and panting heavily as he held the knife back up, Undyne frowning as she held up both gauntleted hands.

"Oh, you think you're a wise guy, huh? Well how about a song of my own? **BURN, BABY, BURN!** " She proclaimed, two burning red fireballs manifesting in her hand.

 _"Eradicate this enemy. You will become strong. Her strength will become your strength."_ Chara's voice hissed inside his head.

"You can't beat good old regular fire magic! Nearly every monster worth their salt can cast this! So guess what, human? Thigns are gonna be HEATING UP for you!" The head of the Royal Guard laughed as she tossed the fireballs through the dark cave air like fastballs, but a glint had entered Anthony's eye as he took hold of his frying pan.

THA-THWAM! He batted the first one aside, then caught the next one squarely in the pain, tossing the fireball up and down as Undyne stared in shock, practically frozen on the spot as Anthony gave her a big, slightly smug grin. "Huhhhh?"

"Lady, you can't be a cook if you're AFRAID OF FIRE!" Anthony proclaimed, tossing the fireball back as it whizzed towards Undyne, who twisted her body to avoid, it, her hair almost getting singed as Anthony held his frying pan up, pointing it up at her. "Now come on! Have at thee!"

"Let's see how you deal with THIS!" Undyne snarled, one hand held high in the air as she opened up her palm, stretching her gauntleted fingers. Magical power coalesced around it, forming another spear as she then lowered it down towards her other hand and smirked, snapping her fingers.

SSSSSS. Burning flames now lit up the end of the spear as she rushed forward with a mighty roar, Anthony rushing forward as well, knife and pan held in each hand as two mighty forces clashed. They struck at each other, slashing, striking, hitting, whacking, but blow after blow was deflected. Yes, each other's weapons struck over and over, loud CLANG-CLANG-CLANGS ringing throughout waterfall as they lashed out over and over. Neither side would give an inch, Chara was laughing, laughing so hard at the glorious fight, Anthony gritting his teeth, Undyne growling, neither one willing to give an inch. They danced around Waterfall, their fight taking them down the long halls, through pouring rain, across vast stretches of endless darkness, before they were finally on a long bridge.

Yes. They'd fought all the way to Hotland, magma rising up from beneath the strongly-built, yet somehow rickety-feeling bridge beneath them as the burnt reddish/brown land of Hotland contrasted powerfully with the vibrant colors Undyne held in her hand, and the bright green of the human. Both of their souls seemed unyielding as they pressed their weapons together on the bridge, eyes intensely narrowed at each other as sweat poured off each other's brow. It appeared there'd be no quarter given, nobody would be able to stop them.

And in truth, nobody did...

Except themselves. Because after ten straight minutes of striking out at each other, trying to knock the other to the ground, both were now panting and heaving, legs quivering and barely able to move.

"...hot...enough...for...you...?" Undyne grunted out.

"Can't...take the heat, then...get outta the...kitchen..." Anthony groaned, Chara's voice rising up in his head again.

 _"Come now! She is weak. Gain your second wind. End her and move on to the next enemy."_ It spoke, its voice snarling and cold as Anthony shuddered, feeling this...THING...pouring into him. He cringed, and then saw Undyne's expression, and a look of clear concern came onto his face.

She was barely standing, sweating buckets, and her scaly blue skin was becoming so pale. Being in Hotland for this long, and fighting at full force, was too much for her. She'd already been kind of tired out from their fight through Waterfall. But now they'd been fighting for almost half an hour, and the fact she was still unwilling to give up?

"You're going to...you're going to _DIE_ if you don't stop." Anthony reasoned softly, Undyne hearing the odd change in his voice, and taking a step back as he lowered his frying pan and the knife.

"I don't care." She managed to grumble out, wiping some spittle off her face as she took in a few deep breaths, holding her spear back up though she was shaking like mad. "You may be stronger than I thought, but...no. I...I won't let this be where it ends. I...won't...die." Undyne said, as an unusual color began to drift over her singular good eye, an unusual, almost otherworldly color. The pupil became a powerful, burning red, the iris pitch black as she laughed in a fashion that was psychotic, Anthony looking mournfully back at her. "For the sake of everyone's hopes and dreams...I WILL DEFEAT YOU!"

"... _Undyne_." He spoke softly.

"So you're! You're gonna have to try harder than that!" She laughed. "Humans might be determined, but I'm determined too! Determined to end this!"

Anthony stared at her, looking mournfully at her. "You aren't gonna survive if you keep fighting me."

"I won't die! I WON'T DIE!" Undyne exclaimed, holding her fists up high, and swinging them at Anthony.

But Anthony didn't fight back. He just took her punch to the face, cringing as the hot volcanic wind of the Hotlands whipped around him, and he quietly began taking his hat off. Then he began undoing his apron, and it fluttered away in the hot breeze, vanishing into the distance as he turned his head, seeing a large building far, far away.

 _"What're you doing?! Fight back or die!"_ Chara demanded furiously in his mind as Anthony made his way towards the towering laboratory, Undyne wiping her brow as she tried to lurch after him, Anthony knocking on the door before turning back to face Undyne, who whacked him in the face again and again, her body shimmering and shaking. She was losing her form, becoming more and more pale and white as Anthony stood there, looking quietly at her, his expression mournful and sad.

"I won't die...I...won't...die..." Undyne whispered before she felt Anthony gently embrace her, silencing Chara's furious roars as he gently patted her on the back, the doorway to the lab sliding open as a yellow-scaled, dinosaur-esque monster stared in surprise and shock.

"OH! MY! GOD!" She howled out, hands flying to her mouth as Anthony looked up at her.

"Can you help?" He asked, helping Undyne into the lab as the scientist quickly carried her onto a nearby chair, whipping out a bar of pink "Astronaut Food" that was lemonade flavored, putting it into the still-firm face of Undyne, helping her chew.

"Come on. Chew. CHEW." The dinosaur-like monster insisted.

"Alp...hys..." Undyne groaned out, swallowing the bar down as best she could, and sure enough, before Anthony's eyes, her figure began to become more solid, her eye returning to its normal color.

"What happened with your eye, Undyne? Your **body**?"

"I just...I just so badly wanted to...to win. I didn't want to die...didn't want to lose..." Undyne murmured, almost flopping out of the chair as Alphys looked over at Anthony, who quietly nodded back and headed towards the exit of the lab, leaving Alphys to tend to her as Anthony made his way across the long, dusty red natural roadway of the Hotlands. Though the burning wind seemed to bite into his flesh, he kept walking across the long path, sitting down on a conveyer belt as a small, volcano-esque monster with a cheery red little smile approached him as he finally stopped, sitting on a long bridge of tan pipes.

"Ohh, what's wrong?" It asked, Anthony hanging his head as it sat down with him on the pipe bridge.

"I almost got someone really, really hurt. All because I didn't want to just...run away. And I didn't want her to hurt me." Anthony mumbled. "Why does it feel like there's no good answers to anything I ask?"

"Life can be like that. But you know what cheers me up? Big smiles and bigger hugs!" The volcano-like monster said, nuzzling up against him, Anthony ignoring how darn HOT it was as he returned the hug. "OH! So...so LOVEY!" She proclaimed, billowing out smoke in the perfect shape of a heart.

"Thanks. It does make me feel a little better. And a little hot. Actually, VERY hot."

"Oh, sweetie, I'm flattered, but you're not my type. We Vulkins like our curves, y'know?" Vulkin insisted, breaking the hug and giving him a nod before walking off, Anthony yawning as he headed deeper into Hotland, seeing what appeared to be a burning torch-like monster made up of rope with little sneakers and a head that was continuously on fire.

"Hey, c'mon, Vulkin! Go out with me!" It insisted with its overly cheery smile as Vulkin kept walking off, frowning as it looked over at Anthony. "How come she let YOU hug her?"

"Well, I'm very depressed right now."

"...so I gotta act depressed and sad, and that'll make her come to me. Of course! Chicks LOVE cheering people up!" The "Pyrope" remarked as it happily hopped up and down. "Oh, thanks, kid! I'll be sure to try it out. Hold on. I gotta practice my expression." He said, his eyeless face smiling back at Anthony. "So how do I look?"

"...you're still smiling." Anthony reasoned, the red head scratching his head as Pyrope sighed.

"C'mon, I'm sad! Can't you see I'm laughing through tears?"

"Not really."

"Ohhh, this'll be trickier than I thought." Pyrope grumbled, walking off as Anthony kept walking,heading towards what appeared to be a large grate with an arrow marked on it that laid off in the distance. Curiously he approached, taking a step on it...

Soaring through the air, landing on an outcropping some distance away with a THUMP as he blinked in surprise, picking himself up. "Wow. I didn't know this place had stuff like this." He admitted, a small smile coming to his face as he saw another grate up ahead.

 _"What are you doing!? This is pointless!"_

"No. It's fun." Anthony said, as the smile spread more broadly and he stepped onto the grate, pirouetting through the air and landing expertly on another patch of land, taking deep bows. "Thank you, thank you!" He proclaimed, suddenly hearing something echoing through the air as he saw what was unmistakably a plane coming towards him. A plane with...a mop cap. A floppy little mop cap on its head. It hovered not too far away, staring at him with its visor-esque face, looking him over as he blinked in surprise. "Um...hi?" He remarked.

"Who're you?" The plane said, clearly some kind of monster.

"Anthony Vardalos. And you?"

"Y-You're...are you a...huuuuman?" She asked, a clear blush coming to her face, pink stretching across as Anthony scratched the back of his head.

"Well, uh...yeah." He said. "And you would be?"

"Tsunderplane." It said, its voice a quiet whisper as it looked Anthony over, circling around him. "A real human? Is...is that true?"

"Yes, why? Do you like humans?"

"EEEK! N-No way!" Tsunderplane said, clearly flustered, slightly turning away from him. "L-Like I would like YOU! Id-idiot!" She insisted, "harrumphing" as Anthony shrugged and took a step back.

"Okay, okay." He said, giving her some personal space. "I understand. You're probably a busy woman, got lots to do, don't want to waste time with me."

"Ohhh, you're so understanding!" The Tsunderplane said with a wistful sigh. "Why can't more men be like you?" She murmured, drifting off as Anthony smiled a bit and made his way towards another grate, spiralling through the air, letting the wind dance around him before he landed on the ground and smiled, flopping onto his back as his pan flopped onto the side with him, staring up at the seemingly endless abyss of black high, high above him.

"I remember why I came down here." He said to himself. "It was because I just wanted to help my family. That's all I wanted. And if I can help someone...REALLY help them...then that's okay. Even if it means I don't get what I want. Because being good is good enough."

 _"You can be so much more. Don't you remember how you felt when you clashed with Undyne? Nearly reduced her to dust?"_ Chara's voice echoed in his mind as Anthony sighed and sat up, resting his hand on the pan.

 **"You're not my sister."** He spoke quietly. "I'll always remember what she stood for in my mind and in my heart. And I'm  sorry. But I can't help you. I wish I'd gotten down here sooner, but I can't help you. You're not even human anymore. You're not even _Chara_ anymore. You're just some... _thing_. Something that just wants to hurt and hurt just because they can. Just because they feel good when they do it. That's what I was feeling. It wasn't me that felt happy when I was fighting against Undyne, it was YOU. But you won't get me to hurt, and you won't get me to kill. I won't play your game."

Chara's voice raged within his head. But he ignored it, and quietly sat there, waiting. Waiting. Many long hours seemed to pass as the heat began to rise, his already weak form slowly getting weaker...

He felt so...

...so warm...

So warm and nice...

...

...

...

..."Ugh. Where is he?" Undyne muttered, frowning as she made her way through the Hotlands in a less hot white t-shirt and white pants, gritting her teeth as she walked across a pipe bridge, hands in her pockets. "C'mon, just wanna get this over with." She mumbled out, finally seeing his form off in the distance, head hung, sitting Indian-style off on a patch of land not too far away. Making her way towards him, she cleared her throat.

"Hey. Turn around."

Anthony slowly lifted his head, Undyne blinking a bit. What was that...smell? It smelled so odd. She shrugged as she looked down at him, folding her arms over her chest. "C'mon, let's get this over with. I technically need to thank you for getting me to the lab and to Alphys. So let me just do this quick, like a band-aid, and..."

Then she realized what the smell was and she saw how hot and red and thin his body was, the sweat pouring down his brow as she stared in shock. "How long have you been sitting out here?"

"I dunno. Hours?" He managed to wheeze out, as she could see his soul flickering about. He was dying right before her eyes. Human bodies weren't meant to be in such close proximity to magma and heat. Not even the almost magical atmosphere of the Underground could dim that effect for long. "But I'm free. It doesn't want to talk to me anymore. That thing's given up on me."

"You just...sat here this whole time?" She asked. "...were you just...waiting for me?"

"I had a feeling you'd...come back." He remarked. "I won't stop you. Go ahead." He mumbled, hanging his head. "I won't fight you, Undyne. I never wanted to. Even if Chara did."

Undyne now felt clear, heavy guilt slam into her with the weight of a freight train. The human looked so pitiful now, and the spear she had in her hand quivered and shook. This wasn't even close to a fair fight, and he'd been under no obligation to help her. But...this?

"I...I can't feel sorry for you. I...I have to do this." She tried to insist, gritting her teeth. "We just want to get out of the Underground. We're desperate and scared and we've nothing else to go on. Don't you **understand**?"

"Yes, I do."

 **"Then why aren't you mad?!"** She yelled back. "You're going to DIE! I'm going to kill you! Come on! Hate me!" She insisted, picking him up, lifting his small frame up as her tone got desperate and sad. "Despise me! Tell me you want to kill me! I'm your enemy!"

"You're not." Anthony said. "You're just sad and you're angry and you're just doing what you think will help the people you love. And I won't hate you."

Undyne gripped her spear, closing her remaining eye.

"...I hate that you're making me not hate you." She whispered out, letting him go as she fell to her knees and covered her face. "I can't do it. I can't. I can't kill someone who saved my life when they didn't have to." Undyne said, shaking her head back and forth as she rose up, holding out a hand. "Come on. Let's go get you something to eat."

Anthony blinked. "...R-Really?" He asked.

"Yeah, I know a good place not too far from here. This girl owes me a few favors, so..."

...

...

...

..."Oh my. A real human? How delightful!"

Anthony nervously looked down at the donut in his hand, as he sat on the edge of the purple metal platform with Undyne, who sipped away at a "Spider Cider" as the lovely Ms. Muffet stood to Anthony's right. He nibbled on it a bit, blinking at the taste before continuing to eat, Muffet rubbing her chin thoughtfully as she sauntered around Anthony, looking him over.

"I must say, I've not seen a male human before." She admitted as Anthony munched on the crunchy donut. Muffet had distinctly black hair, with purple skin and six arms, two of which were at her sides, her remaining hand holding a cup of tea as she giggled a bit. It was odd to see a red-dressed spider-woman with pantaloons, let alone one with red ribbons and HAIR. And five eyes.

"How come you've got five eyes? I thought spiders had eight, just like they have eight legs."

"Ah, well, I'm young. I don't have all of them. I'm not even in my twenties." The gal remarked with a shrug and a small giggle. "Do you like my spider pastries?"

"Er, they're okay, but...the thing is, um...you said they're made with real spiders? Isn't that... **cannibalism**?" Anthony remarked as he finished with the donut, Muffet sipping on some tea that she poured for herself as Undyne gave him a "Ixnay on the annibalism-cay" glance.

"Deary, the Dogressa and the Dogamy are actually cousins. But nobody cares about them being married. That kind of thing happens with canines all the time." Muffet laughed, sipping on the tea as Undyne passed Anthony the cider as he sipped from it. Despite being somewhat creeped out at the prospect of spider cider, the taste was oddly juicy and good and he nodded in gratitude at Undyne as she got up, and dusted herself off.

"Well, I gotta get going." She admitted. "Thanks for this, Muffet. Consider us even." She said, Muffet putting her tea away on her nearby bake sale table and giving a polite bow as Undyne turned to Anthony, who shook her head. "Hey, uh...take care of yourself. Sorry about the whole...trying to stick a spear in you thing."

"It's no problem." Anthony said. "No harm, no foul." He remarked cheerily, Undyne heading off down the long hall back to the lab as he turned to Muffet. "So your fellow spiders don't mind being made into pastries and stuff?"

"Well, it's just donuts and cider. We can't really do a lot else." Muffet remarked with a shrug as Anthony stood up, looking surprised.

"Oh? But there's so many more wonderful things you could make if you had the ingredients." He insisted, shaking his head back and forth as he walked over to her bake sale table. "Do you know how to make croissants?"

"Cross-huh?" Muffet stared, her five black eyes blinking stupidly as Anthony pulled up the box from beneath the table that had "Ingredients" listed on it, some spiders scurrying out of it as he apologetically smiled at them.

"Look, we just need flour, water, active dry yeast, milk, melted butter, and cold unsalted butter. Oh, and salt." He insisted. "Can you get those? My inner cook YEARNS to craft something delightful."

Muffet looked him over, then looked slightly to the side, as if unsure...but then she clapped her hands. "Spiders! Ingredients. Let's find some!"

Within half an hour, the spiders of Hotlands had brought forth everything they needed as Anthony found himself in Muffet's kitchen. It, like Muffet herself, was deep purple with and highly-scrubbed steely floors that were easy to clean, and she had big, gigantic desks and tables that had been evidently hand-crafted. But that was easy when you had multiple pairs of hands. Light filtered in from a set of enormous windows nearby in the shape of, of course, a spider's web, casting rays upon the ingredients as Anthony mixed together the water, the flour and the yeast.

"Make sure it's mixed evenly, then we'll set it aside, and let it rise for an hour. You, meanwhile, take the remaining flour, the milk and the melted butter...plus the salt...and add it in. Then we're gonna cover the bowl with a wet paper towel and let it rest for twenty minutes."

"And then what?" Muffet asked after the dough was made, Anthony bringing it out of the bowl and putting it down on the kitchen table as he smiled warmly at her.

"Knead it by hand for ten minutes. It's got to feel mixed and smooth and elastic, like-"

"Like a web that can't break. I can handle that!" Muffet said with a snap of her claws, kneading over the dough as Anthony nodded.

"Exactly. Then we refrigerate it for half an hour..."

"Oh, what of the butter, though?" Muffet asked as Anthony went over to get the cold butter out of the refrigerator she had, holding it up and getting out a rolling pin.

"What I'm gonna do is pound this thing into an eight inch square. Then you'll take out the dough from the fridge and roll it into a rectangle about, oh...nine by seventeen inches? Then you take the square of butter and put it on the bottom half of the rectangle, you fold it..."

And sure enough, soon after some expert folding and some more refrigeration, it was time to begin cutting the dough up. Muffet expertly sliced and diced it into triangles, then began rolling the triangles up into crescents. And soon...

"Perfect! Now you just pop these into the oven at 375 for fifteen minutes, switch them onto their back for another fifteen, and you're done!" Anthony said with a big smile, Muffet looking over her creation proudly as she grinned in delight.

"Oh, sweetie, thank you for this! Are there any other dishes you can make?" She wanted to know, Anthony smiling as he took out his small cookbook from his backpack.

"Oh, I've got plenty here. I brought a bunch with me. I shared with Ms. Toriel and I can share with you." He told her as the spider-girl smiled back.

"It'll be so nice to have so many other dishes to make." Muffet admitted, bringing the croissants over to the oven and popping them in before she turned and wrapped her arms around Anthony, giving him a kiss.

SMMMMK.

He blinked in surprise, an odd, hazy feeling coming over him as Muffet's voice crooned in his ear.

"You're such a nice boy. I do like you, I really do. And I'm grateful for what you've given us." She said, his body becoming so...so very tired. "But we can get ourselves so much money if we take your soul." She cooed, hand tracing over his cheek. "We need that to unite the Spider Clans. It's just business." Muffet insisted. "Now just relax and go to sleep, deary. Let me wrap you in the finest silk and claim your soul nice and easy..."

He could faintly feel himself falling, Muffet's sweet voice lingering in his ears as he was barely awake of hundreds of spiders crawling towards him...

And then...

Peace.

...

...

...

...Undyne stared with disgust as she looked at the webbed-up, silent, still form of the human boy that was laid on the laboratory floor, the green Soul now tucked away inside of a container like the others as she coldly looked at Muffet, who was nodding at Alphys, who handed over a large bag of gold. But even Alphys looked disgusted as she took hold of the soul and put it with the others, Undyne lifting up the webbed form of the child in her arms as Muffet and her spiders made their way out of the lab.

"That was _blood money._ " She grunted. "It's one thing to kill someone in a fair fight, but she clearly poisoned him." She said, brushing away the webs from his face, his expression pale and slightly purple. " **Poison is a COWARD'S weapon**." Undyne whispered coldly.

"I don't like it either, but the rule is that if any outside monster not in the Royal Guard claims a soul, they have the right to monetary compensation." Alphys said. "I think it's cruel too. But what're we supposed to do?" She murmured. "If only there was another way to get free of the barrier." She said, looking at Undyne.

"Sometimes I wish I could just punch the damn thing to shreds. That'd be easy." The head of the Royal Guard grunted as Alphys smiled a bit at that.

"And you'd probably be determined enough to do it, too-" She said before her eyes lit up. An idea had hit her.

... **Determined**.

The power of the Soul. The ability to change fate. Determination. What if...what if Determination was the key? What if...

"Undyne, you just gave me a great idea." Alphys whispered, her eyes alit with joy.

...

...

...

...unbeknownst to all of them, it was not finished.

It was not yet gone.

It's spirit may have been decaying and rotted away. But its influence had lingered on.

It would find a way back. It would find a way to show them all the True Power of this World. To show them all what the world was REALLY about. And the revelation would come from a singular golden flower.

The Nightmare was not gone. It would not die so easily. It had been denied twice. And it would not.

Be denied.

Again.


	11. Baby of Mine

**Author's Note:**

 **Once again, thanks to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, and followed this story. Enjoy this chapter! There's quite a bit of set-up before I get started on more action, but we had a very action-packed chapter last time, so I think a lull is in order for now.**

Her first memory was that of pain, because he had been screaming in agony after having died for the very first time, at just two weeks of age. Her birth mother had abandoned her in a small tent with a note that read "I just couldn't handle the responsibility".

So she had passed from the world, deciding "Check, please" to God himself, asking to be excused. But somehow, that didn't happen. She died...and then came right back to life. It was as if she had somehow been miraculously saved from Death itself. This "Save" should have been impossible.

But it had happened all the same. And she'd been found by a young man and woman, and her next memory was that of warmth and love, and the first words she could remember were her own.

Bonnie. Bonnie Hatfield-McCoy.

Now, her parents had tried their damnedest to stick together. They'd spent an entire year sneaking off after their own respective, close-minded parents had said "nothing doing" to their forbidden love. But soon after their parents had gone even further and put their foot down even more so. Roseanna McCoy and Johnse Hatfield could no longer be together. Not at all.

So the division had grown worse. They would now begin passing her between them almost like a football, with Roseanna in the day and Johnse at night. Sometimes with her one weekend, other times with Johnse. The one thing the families agreed on: neither of them could get the child fully.

It was when she was six that Bonnie killed.

It'd been an accident, well and truly. A horrific, tragic set of circumstances. She'd been out collecting mushrooms and nuts in the deep recesses of the forest as a soft zephyr kissed her even softer face, and she brushed brown locks aside, looking out from underneath a cowboy hat far too onerous for her to wear. There, she had seen it; a poor baby bluebird that had somehow fallen right out of its nest. Immediately she'd picked it up, feeling its tender THUMPA-THUMPA heartbeat in her little palms, green eyes wide with awe and shock at how something so small could be so pretty and precious.

She simply couldn't leave it there. Staring up at the nest it had fallen out of, wondering if she could perhaps try climbing up the tree before wisely deciding against it, she instead put it in a jacket pocket. The jacket was just as Brobdingnagian as the hat, frankly, and the good news was that this meant deep pockets. So she happily made her way back home as the wind fluttered through her hair, launching green leaves across the pathway back to her father Johnse. It was his weekend and that meant staying with her sisters at the McCoys's place.

But unfortunately when she'd gotten there and taken out the bird to show her dad, she'd screamed in shock. The poor little thing was dead. It had somehow died inside her pocket, possibly suffocated, or perhaps shaken around a bit too much as she'd sauntered back home. Seeing how heartbroken she was, Johnse had walked back to the tree she'd found the bird at with her and he'd tenderly embraced her as she looked up at the nest, seeing a kind of ugly, dark grey-feathered bird up in the nest, surrounded by bluebirds.

"Whuzzat?" She managed to mumble out.

"It's a cuckoo bird." Johnse had explained to her with a sigh. "It's mother puts the chick into another bird's nest and it'll push the other baby birds right out."

"That's awful." Bonnie said. "Why would it do that? That's so **mean**!" She'd whimpered as Johnse kept hugging her.

"It's just doing what it was taught. It's all it knows."

"That's not fair." Bonnie had muttered. "It ain't fair to do that to something so little."

In that moment, something ignited within her. Something even more powerful than her will to not die. A sense of fairness, of right and wrong. A deep desire for justice.

Her mother had tragically died only a few years later, and Bonnie had just stood and stared at the grave for what had seemed to be a long, long time. Unwilling to move, she'd just...sat there, staring, still as a statue with eyes that appeared to gaze long, long beyond the horizon. At long last, Johnse had finally worked up the courage to ask Ms. McCoy for one final mercy...he wanted to leave the state, to leave everything behind, the feud between their families included, and to take Bonnie.

She...and mercifully, Mr. Randolph McCoy, Roseanna's father...agreed.

So Johnse had moved off to Kentucky with Bonnie, and she'd stayed with him for the next few years. But he'd noticed something about her, something all his wives did too. Something that made them not want to stay with him.

Bonnie didn't age right. In fact, she didn't seem to age at all. He wasn't sure when, but she had stopped getting older in appearance sometime around the age of 10. Perhaps she was really 11, maybe 12, maybe even thirteen, but she didn't...AGE. She stayed at that same look even when it made no sense. And though Johnse thought it was a sign that God wanted her to stay young and innocent and good, an eternal reminder of one of the few truly good things in his life, his wives had all left him one after another, terrified of this immortal child.

Bonnie didn't mind. She'd just stayed with her father, working hard on his farm, trying to make a living as a farm hand to help pay their bills. But then she'd gotten caught during a stampede, and everyone on the farm had immediately rushed over. The air was hot and humid, stinging your lungs like fire as they shot towards where she'd been trampled, thinking that they'd find a mangled corpse...

Only for her eyes to flutter open as she madly coughed some blood up before picking her small frame up, steadying herself on a nearby fence, looking up at the foreman. "I ain't in trouble, am I?" She'd asked.

Now people were scared. Absolutely, totally scared. There was no way she should have survived, but she had. What was keeping this child alive?

So she'd had no choice. She had run. She'd taken everything she could at her father's request, and had run off to New England, scraping by on the streets, stealing food to keep herself alive and wearing the same old jacket and pants and hat her momma and poppa had given her, trying to keep it as clean and well-kept as she could. Then, one day, a stroke of luck had hit when she'd sat in on a church service in "Saint Catherine's of Sienna". The local father had noticed how thin and emaciated she was, and had immediately asked her after the service if she had any family. And then if she'd had any food in ages.

Soon she had a home again, with people who didn't care that she had an unusual ability. Father Michael believed it was a sign, and soon it was SHE who was taking over church duties whilst he began running an orphanage just across the street, taking control of the church through some slightly shifty paperwork and a little pleading and Bambi Eyes thanks to the local board's concern for the children. Be as wise as serpents but innocent as doves, and Bonnie was both.

So Bonnie now had a home in Simsbury, at the base of Mount Ebott. But she had noticed there was a dirty snake in her new garden of eden. A child she'd taken notice of in church that had been...acting kind of oddly during services. And would stare disturbingly at the children at the orphanage who didn't take kindly to her either because of how strange she was.

Bonnie had tried to approach Chara Vardalos. She'd really tried to reach out. She'd even gotten her a kitten, one of the many that the orphanage had from the big ol' calico they kept. "Here." Bonnie had said with a small little smile, handing Chara the kitten with a bow of her head. "You can have her, Chara. You'll take good care of her, right?" She'd asked. "You seem real lonely, I ain't ever seen you playin' with nobody in town, and none of the orphanage kids ever seem to wanna play with ya. So I was thinkin' maybe a little ol' kitty cat to play with might cheer ya up?"

"I guess it might." Chara had murmured, looking the cat over as it "meowed" Chara turning it slightly around in her hands as Bonnie had watched her head down the pathway back to the road, walking on the sidewalk as the wind blew fall leaves like a red, yellow and orange quilt across the dying green of grass.

Yet during the next few days, she'd immediately regretted doing this. Bonnie had been walking down the sidewalk, heading for the church with some groceries for the Sunday cathechism class's Easter Brunch when she'd heard a voice she recognized all too clearly, and a horrific, soulcrushing chill ran up her spine like creeping ice.

 _"I wanna_ _ **kill**_ _you! I wanna_ _ **kill**_ _you, mommy!"_

With that, Chara had run outside the front door, a frazzled-looking calico kitten in her hands, eyes red with tears as she bolted like lightning for the woods, Bonnie looking briefly from the house to where Chara had run off to...

Seeing there was something metallic glinting out of Chara's back pocket as another chill ran up her spine.

Following Chara into the woods, Bonnie had set the groceries down, inching past long, tall oak trees as the wind seemed to run its fingers up the back of her neck. She walked across a path that was almost utterly obscured by leaves, seeing Chara forcefully keeping the kitten in her grip, with what appeared to be needles in her back pocket.

"Ch-Chara? Are you alright? I-I heard ya hoopin' and hollerin', are you and your parents fighting?" She asked, Chara turning around, sniffling a bit.

"I hate my parents." She muttered. "They lock my door at night."

"Why?"

"Cuz they don't want me touchin' Johnny." She said, holding the kitten up. "And hurting them."

"Why would y'all momma and your poppa think you'd hurt them?" Bonnie had asked, slightly stunned as Chara had taken out a pin, and she twirled it in her free hand, Bonnie suddenly sweating nervously, realizing Chara was debating in her mind whether or not to stick it into the cat.

"Because I want to stick pins in them when they're asleep." She muttered. "Been practicing."

"W-Why at n-nighttime?" Bonnie managed to mutter out.

"So they can't **see** me do it." Chara went on, as she finally stuck the pin down...Bonnie flinching. It had dug deep into the ground, the kitten in her grip shaking like a leaf.

"Do you, I mean...you don't ever stick pins in the cat do you?" Bonnie asked.

"I just...I just hate my parents." Chara muttered. "And I hate those...those big jerks at the school. I want them to die. They hurt me all the time and I wanna hurt them back. I want to hurt them hard. I wish I could get hold of a knife. But all I could sneak away were pins. So I'll stick a pin in their eyes and then I'll stick the eyeballs on a plate and serve 'em like the lil' hot dogs they serve at lunch at school!" She said, her voice almost far away, her tone odd, terrifying, off-kilter as Bonnie wanted to bolt like a rabbit, her mouth slightly agape as she just stared at Chara. "Then they'd stop hurting me and ignoring me so much."

Bonnie had known in that very minute that there was something very, very wrong with Chara Vardalos. And so she hadn't been surprised when the girl had gone missing.

But she HAD been surprised when a cute, adorable little goaty-like child in a striped yellow and green long-sleeve shirt had come to town, carrying her body.

At first, she had stared, eyes wide in shock and surprise. Part of her had felt...relieved that Chara was dead. Because this meant that the girl could never hurt anything or anyone ever again. Yet seeing the lock of pain and agony on the little horned tyke's face had been heartbreaking. Face falling, she had called out to the kid after he'd momentarily blinded the crowd that had surged forth from their homes to "Kill the beast" that had murdered a poor, innocent missing girl. She'd taken him into the church, and let him lay Chara down as she'd put a hand on his shoulder, looking up at the statue of Jesus that hung high above.

"Howdy there! Bonnie Hatfield-McCoy at your service. What's yer name?" Bonnie had asked, lowering the camera phone she'd had in her hand, tucking it away.

"H-Howdy b-back! A-Asriel Dreemurr." The goat-like boy had murmured, blue eyes fixed on Chara's pale, tiny body as he held her hand, the tears sliding slowly down his furry white cheeks, his body feeling as soft as a lamb under her gentle touch.

"You're gonna be alright, kid." She insisted. "Y'all gonna be just fine."

"I don't feel that way." He muttered. "I just wanted her to see the golden flowers she loved one more time."

Bonnie shook her head, cringing as she looked him over. "Y'all did a lot for her, but look at you. Y'all been shot a bunch of times, kid. Ya got bullet holes out yer backside."

"Y-You're, you're really nice, b-but I-I'll...be fine..." He grunted out, cringing, his body beginning to shake as Bonnie cringed in disgust. "Ooh. I...I just gotta get back home. Stay...stay determined is all."

"Listen, I'll sneak ya out the back door. It ain't safe here, so I'm gonna go get me somethin' to defend us if the mob finds us again and y'all can't do your little fireworks trick. Just stick close to me." She said, Asriel nodding as she stood up and headed for her room, pushing open a mahogany doorway in the church and heading for her little black safe, opening it up as she picked out the Colt Anaconda she had within, filling it up with bullets before gazing to the little Jesus statue on her own wall. Bonnie Hatfield-McCoy sighed as she brushed some tinted-blonde hair aside, looking at Jesus's long-suffering face.

"She's with you now." She remarked before cringing. "Tough break, big guy." She added.

...

...

...

...Sans stood there, staring in surprise at the young African-American girl that was sitting in his private lab. He had heard her voice echoing out when he'd gone in to Snowdin to check in on the kids and see if Asgore truly was teaching them in the school. Sure enough, he'd not been in the palace, no, he'd been at their gym class, showing them all how to do their first magic. But then his bony head had heard her voice on the wind, and as he followed it towards his home, he'd found himself in his hidden lab.

The walls were a soft blue, the blueprints for the time machine on a tiled countertop that matched the white floor, with Alphys's notes scattered about nearby. Time and time again they'd tried and failed to fix it. Time and time again they had failed. And Alphys had kept crying every time she'd looked at the time machine, unsure why she wanted to fix it so badly, and why she couldn't stand to look at Sans sometimes.

At long last he had moved it to his house and to a secret wing he'd built to try and fix it in secret, but this too had failed. Now he just had a big, sheet-covered capsule to show for it, a photograph of old friends...

And that familiar girl sitting next to him with another familiar face. The young Asian lass was with her too.

"Hope has a lot to talk to you about, Mr. Sans." Qiang admitted. "I'm here to make sure you don't leave until she's done. Rúguǒ nǐ chángshì rènhé shìqíng, wǒ huì sī liè nǐ de jǐchuí chūlái." She added with a cheery smile.

 **"uh, don't think i'll be leaving. but the joke's on you, I lost my spine YEARS ago!"** Sans chuckled, Qiang getting behind him and blocking off the door as Sans pulled up a chair, folding his arms over his jacketed chest, staring at Hope. **"why now? you ain't "haunted" me for decades."**

"We've been working behind the scenes just like...HE has." Hope admitted. "It hasn't quite worked out so well, he sorta...he's kind of split off into pieces. Some nice, some naughty. But he's trying at least, and so are we."

Sans quickly drew in a sharp breath. **"y-you mean...Gaster? Bro?"**

"What do you think time is?" Hope asked.

Sans now stared. **"uhhhhh...like...a progression of events one after the other? A railroad track? I know about other timelines, but I don't know how to interact with 'em. As far as I figured, they just kinda run parallel to us on different tracks."**

"Not quite. Time is like a river." Hope said, picking up a nearby piece of chalk, drawing a river on a chalkboard on the wall with a SCRRRRTCH-SCRRRTCH, gesturing at it. "See, it's got tributaries that flow off it, tributaries made by choices that link to other rivers. And where the rivers end? Well, they can end...abruptly. Badly. Sometimes for you, sometimes for everyone." She said, showing a river ending suddenly in a small little pool, sighing as she hung her messy, black-haired head.

"But if you made a good choice, you go along another path. Another timeline. And you can reach something better." She said, drawing a little crook of a stream pouring off into another river that ended in a mighty ocean that stretched out wide. "That power to change Fate? Humans possess so much of it. Monsters can too, but they usually can't handle it. It does...bad things to them if they don't, er...don't have others helping them." Hope sighed.

 **"so what're you saying?"**

"I and the other souls have kind of...rubbed off on the people we "haunted". Everything we did in life and in death, we've helped create a big ol' river. We've moved everyone off a bad path. And your brother Gaster's helping too!" Hope insisted happily. "And if we keep helping in the back, doing our part to guide the right people in the right ways and to the right places, then we can make sure everyone is happy. And you can help too. You made a promise, and someone is coming down who could help free everyone."

Sans's eyes went wider than saucers as Hope's smile beamed bright. "With patience comes wisdom. I know that someone is coming down very, VERY soon who'll have the power to free everyone. I don't know when, don't know who, but I know it's soon. I can feel it in my soul, Sans. It's my gift."

 **"that's** **great!** **"** Sans said, beaming with joy as he rose up. **"i can't wait to tell the kid! ol' Anthony will be thrilled to find out the barrier-"**

Then he saw Hope's smile fade and he suddenly realized why Qiang wasn't going to let him leave.

"I tried to see a way out, but...the only way forward that worked was...was to let him die." Hope muttered. "All of us have our own role to play. There are some things we can't change. But the thing that Anthony could change was how it happened."

 **"i ain't lettin' Undyne kill him!"** Sans snarled as Qiang shook her head, holding a hand out, stopping him from going further.

"Sans, you've been out of shape for years now. Decades. You can't fight anymore, you're like a glass man. You couldn't beat me, even with me just being a spirit. Nǐ shì yīgè zǒng de niángniáng qiāng!" Qiang said sadly. "A TOTAL sissy. Plus Undyne ain't doin' it. Hope told me that."

 **"huh?"** Sans said, mouth slightly agape as he wheeled about, Hope smiling a little.

"Undyne has learned kindness from him. She used to despise all humans fully. But being in the debt of the very brother of the one that took her eye, and being shown such compassion from him, it's planted a seed that will bloom beautifully. She won't do it. She'll make the right choices in the end. It's...it's Muffet that does it." Hope murmured softly, head hung as she folded her arms over her chest. "And...and we need you to do something."

 **"...avenge him?"** Sans asked.

"No. But like I said, there's someone coming down soon who could free everyone. They've a strong sense of right and wrong, and they'll want to avenge all of us who died. We want you to be there to help guide them as best you can." Hope said. "It'll be hard for them, that much I know. But with your help, they'll find the right path."

Sans quaked slightly in his slippers, clenching his fists. **"is...is Anthony already dead?"**

"His body's at the lab. His spirit will linger there. Then he's probably going to go haunt Muffet."

"No, he's too nice. He'll probably just keep teaching her cooking recipes." Qiang chuckled as Sans softly laughed, shaking his head back and forth.

 **"it's kinda like the song goes, huh? only the good die young..."** Sans muttered, Qiang stepping aside and letting him walk out the door, a soft woosh of wind telling her that he'd teleported away as she sighed, shaking her little bandanna-wearing head.

"What if we're wrong about this? You've been right about everything before, but before it was really crystal clear. Now your visions are getting muddy. You're not even sure if the next human that comes down here will get everyone out!" She asked of Hope. "Rúguǒ nǐ shì cuò de?" Qiang had insisted.

Hope bit her lip.

"...I just hope I'm not."

MEANWHILE...

"How could I have been so **stupid**?!" Bonnie hung her head, clutching her skull as she sat in the bedroom. How? HOW?!

"Why didn't I realize he didn't love me?" She asked Father Michael aloud, feeling the Irish-American gently embracing her in his big, fluffy green and white priestly robes as the Catholic head of the town's church spoke comfortingly to her. "How could I be so damn stupid?!"

"God will not think any less of you for this. Nor will I. It isn't your fault this happened." He insisted. "I just want to ask...how did it happen? I mean, when did this baby...begin?"

"I should have told you right after we, er...we, um..." Bonnie sniffled through the tears, wiping her running nose on her arm before slowly turning to look into Father Michael's face with reddened eyes. "I'd never, EVER done it before. He said it would be amazing. And that-that it-that I wouldn't...I didn't know that if...I just..."

"I understand." Father Michael insisted warmly, gently taking her head to his chest as she sobbed openly into his robed form, the tears not stopping as Bonnie clutched him tightly.

"What am I gonna do? It...it HURTS. I can feel it growing in me and it hurts. I don't wanna...y'know! G-Get rid of it! But it hurts so much!" She managed to blubber out, Father Michael caressing her back.

"I will be here for you. And for your child, for as long as I'm able, my own cancer be damned." He insisted. "And I don't give a fuck if I'm swearing in a church, either." He added with a smile. "Jesus spent his entire time around working men and cussed out Peter for cutting a man's ear off."

"I almost wanna cut off Haru's ear." Bonnie grumbled.

"Bonnie, vengeance is not justice. Do not ever forget that." Father Michael said. "An eye for an eye made sense in a time when you could get your hand cut off for theft. But we must love those that do us wrong, and wish that they could be good. Wish that they could be redeemed. Even if it's hard. One day, you'll find it in you to forgive Haru."

"Will I even be able ta look at my kid without thinkin' of him?" Bonnie quietly asked.

"When you look at your child, you will see your child." Father Michael just said. "A mother and father never stop loving their child. Even if they don't know how to show it."

"...I won't be like him. And I won't be like my first parents. I'm gonna do everything I can to be there for my baby." Bonnie insisted softly, looking down at her stomach. "...I hope it's a boy. I really do."

"I want you to have this and to give it to your son when he's old enough, then." Father Michael said, taking out something from underneath his shirt pocket and unhooking it from around his neck. "I've got another I'll give to you so you can have a matching set just like my father and I had."

Bonnie held it in her hands, looking down at it. It was a little silver necklace with a Four-Leaf Clover on it that twinkled softly in the light of the room as Michael smiled down at her in a cheery fashion. "Do you like it? It always brought me luck. Maybe it'll rub off on you."

"I like it." Bonnie said with a smile, putting the necklace around her neck. "I'll give it to my own son."

"You're sure it'll be a son?"

"I've got a feeling." Bonnie said with a smile and a wink. "It'll be a boy. Yeah, I...I gotta good feeling about him now." She admitted softly as she looked down at her stomach. "What's a good name for a kid? I want him havin' a different name. A good name that's kinda stylish and exotic."

"How about Archibald? Or Benedict?"

"I don't want the kids in the orphanage we run callin' him "Bent Dick" or "Baldy" as he's growin' up." Bonnie said, sticking her tongue out as she laughed a bit, a warm, fuzzy feeling beginning to rise in her. "Naw, I...I'm gonna think of something. I'll know what to call him when I see his face."

And sure enough, she did. Because the first thing her little tyke did when he was given to her in the hospital bed was try to snatch away the little silver necklace wrapped around her neck, tiny fingers clasping at the lucky four-leaved clover as a much sicker-looking yet still overjoyed Father Michael gently put the second one around the baby's neck, Bonnie laughing.

"Ohh, would you look at him?" The brown-haired thirteen year old immortal said to Father Michael and the nurses and doctor nearby. "Tryin' to snatch away my necklace. You sure like the shiny stuff, huh? You take after your mom real good."

"Yes, he wants to whisk it away from you."

"Nah, not...whisk." Bonnie said, a bigger smile spreading across her face as the little tyke looked over the necklace he now had in his tiny palms, an "ooo" coming out of his mouth as he let the light shine off the silvery surface.

"... _Frisk_. I'll name him _**Frisk**_."


	12. Justice or Revenge?

"Have you...noticed something about them?"

Bonnie Hatfield-McCoy nodded quietly as she watched her son Frisk play with the Legos that the other children in the playroom of the church's orphanage had. He had brown hair like his mother, and her natural green eyes, though he distinctly had his father's skin tone. He hummed to himself as he focused intensely on crafting what could only be described as a gigantic Pikachu made entirely out of yellow and black and a touch of red for the cheeks blocks.

"The other children make big and elaborate sets too." Father Michael remarked sagely as he looked down at his smartphone. Oh my. He was supposed to meet the Smiths, the Asian American PARENTS of Bonnie's former boyfriend, the father of her child. They were usually very observant Catholics, but he hadn't seen them for weeks in Church, and they'd gone out of their way to avoid everyone in town. Perhaps because of their son, fifteen, getting a thirteen year old pregnant and then abandoning her.

"Yeah, but they at least follow the instructions a bit. Ol' Frisky, he just watches the stuff he sees in the games we give 'em and he tries to imitate it so much." Bonnie murmured. "It's almost obsessive. But it ain't just that."

"The bully problem?"

Yes, the bully problem. Regrettably, some of the kids did enjoy picking on the others in the orphanage because, for the most part, they could. It was their way of getting out their frustration at not being chosen by a parent. So Frisk would try and stand up to them. But he did it in an unusual way. A VERY unusual way.

See, he'd...try to kiss them. Be they boy or girl, he'd try to kiss them if he saw they were harassing some other kid, running up, lips at the ready, ready to plant it. The bullies, naturally, would bolt for their life. After all, they could handle fisticuffs. But KISSING?

EWWWWWW. Cooties!

"Wait until he's a teenager. Then everyone will want a kiss from him." Father Michael wisecracked, Bonnie giving him a look. "Bonnie, you're not...offended by this, are you?"

"I'm just worried. I don't understand why he acts like this, Father. It ain't really normal, y'know?"

"Are you "normal"?"

"Well I ACT normal." Bonnie defended. "My little ways of speakin' ain't equal to tryin' to go around, kissing everyone! I'm just worried something might be wrong with his head is all. When kids from my time acted like that, they got really, really hurt. Everyone always thought they were stupid n' dumb, like ol' Cotton Top. Called him...y'know, a...a retard." She muttered quietly.

Father Michael sighed. Bonnie, despite having been around for ages through some miraculous power that would not let her die, still had many of her "olde-tyme" ways in her. It was hard for her to not be set in her ways, especially when, despite how long she'd lived, in many ways she was still but a child. Rubbing his chin, he walked over to Frisk and knelt down by him. "Frisk?" He remarked.

Silence. Frisk kept working at the Pikachu, humming to himself.

"FRISK?" Father Michael asked more loudly. Now Frisk looked up, blinking a bit.

"I'm makin' Pikachu." He said simply with a big smile.

"Whatever are you humming?" Father Michael inquired.

Frisk smiled even more broadly and leaned back, resting himself on his palms as the four year old kid bounced his head back and forth. "I hear music in my head sometimes." He said in his childish, slightly garbled tyke-like way. "Kinda like a game. It helps me make stuff."

Father Michael rubbed his chin again before he stood up from the carpeted floor of the white-walled playroom and made his way over to Bonnie as she rubbed the back of her neck. "Bonnie, are you familiar with the term...learning disability?"

"I heard some stuff about it." Bonnie admitted. "From the Lewis's when I'm up working for them. They had wondered if Christa had one."

"It means that a person essentially...thinks about the world differently than the average person. They approach it much differently, they analyze things much differently. It can be hard for them to retain things, whilst other things they will obsess over. It effects their behavior in kind of...eccentric ways. At least, that's a general idea." Father Michael admitted. "I'm going to make some calls to my friends. We can have a state psychologist brought in, and they can test if Frisk has a learning disability."

"Alright, I...I'm gonna go take them to Mount Ebott. It's Bring-Your-Daughter-To-Work-Day." Bonnie said, and soon she was carrying Frisk piggyback style up the mountain towards the science facility, the clouds in the sky ambling by slowly as Frisk looked in awe at the mountain. Bonnie always took Frisk to work whenever she could, it made her feel less lonely and dejected, like less of a failure. Less of a...freak that couldn't die.

"It's so pretty." Frisk said warmly as he beheld the enormous mountain, Bonnie smiling warmly up at him, realizing how quickly he was growing up.

"You like being up here, huh?" She asked, biting her lip as she looked off in the direction of the cave. THE cave. The one so many others had fallen through. "...Frisk, listen. I want y'all to be a good kid. Better than me, you understand?"

"Aw, nobody's better than you, Mommy!" Frisk insisted in that sweet, naive way four year olds thought of their parents as Bonnie just grinned back.

"Aww, maybe you're right." She giggled. Good ol' Frisk. He always knew just what to say.

Meanwhile, down in the Underground, Alphys the Royal Scientist was typing away into her computer in the dim light of the laboratory, adjusting her glasses briefly before steepling her claws, looking over what she'd written. "This is it... Time to do what The King has asked me to do. I will create the power to free us all. I will unleash the power of the SOUL. The barrier is locked by SOUL power. Unfortunately, this power cannot be recreated artificially."

Pressing a button to record what she said as she paced back and forth in front of the computer, looking over a notepad she had, Alphys's scribbled down some equations as she cringed. "SOUL power can only be derived from what was once living. So, to create more, we will have to use what we have now..." She shook her head back and forth, sighing. "The Souls of MONSTERS. But extracting a Soul from a living monster would require incredible power...besides being impractical, doing so would instantly destroy the soul's host. And, unlike the persistent souls of humans...the souls of most monsters disappear immediately upon death. If only I could make a monster's soul LAST..."

Alphys ended the note there, pacing through the laboratory before suddenly noticing a door was open, blinking in surprise. She slowly inched it open, realizing she was in the room where they'd kept the time machine. "Yeah, this was where we were working on the machine." She realized aloud, smiling slightly as she looked down at the large space on the floor where dust from time had not settled down, leaving a clear indication where the machine had been. "Ahhh, good times. I remember when Sans brought out the flashlight because Christa wanted to know about King Fluffybuns, and..."

She trailed off, blinking slowly, clawed hand halted over the middle of where the machine had been. "And...and then...I..." She murmured, realizing she was beginning to cry, her hand going slowly towards her cheeks as she faintly envisioned the time machine. "...why am I crying?" She whispered, slowly turning around, a soft dark shadow lingering on in the inky blackness she left behind, staring quietly and sadly back, multiple mouths opening and closing slowly, as if trying to call out...but unheard.

Within a few weeks, Alphys had begun doing research on , of course, was no help whatsoever. He didn't even hang around the lab anymore, or even call Alphys at longer. So all her research in the castle in its immense library had to be done by her, with Undyne occasionally helping out. Luckily there were bright spots. She had found a large amount of tapes in the library which she and Undyne would sometimes watch together, taking breaks in between research on humans...though Undyne considered the many, MANY anime tapes they found to be quite accurate research indeed. Especially the ones involving giant robots and the like. Speaking of strange anime, she'd met someone else who loved humans as much as her. Napstablook the Ghost's cousin, Hapstablook, an overly cheery ghost that had always talked about feeling like they were a human trapped in a ghost's body, and sometimes Alphys wondered if she, like her, was just as pansexual. After all, both really, REALLY loved watching...intriguing anime.

"It's hot. But sad. You just KNOW Megatron is molesting Starscream." Hapstablook said sadly as she hung her head and shook it back and forth, cute little eyes looking at the screen as she and Alphys sat on the couch together in the lab, Hapstablook trying to munch on some popcorn before remembering she had no arms. "Oh. Uh, Alphys, darling, think you could help me?"

"Sure. I used to do this all the time with Bratty and Catty before I became the assistant royal scientist. Go long!" Alphys cried out holding up the popcorn bucket with one hand and taking out a handfull of popcorn in the other, Hapstablook racing across the room and jumping in the air, catching the popcorn in the mouth.

So yes, perhasp regrettably, research had somewhat ground to a halt when Alphys had begun looking for information on what made humans so different from monsters. Sure, the unique traits they had fascinated her, but that hadn't nearly been as fascinating as when Alphys had found all those anime VHS tapes alongside a collection of home movies that the King and Queen had evidently made with a videotape recorder of their own. And one in particular, well...

"Wow. So that was "Grave of the Fireflies", huh?" Undyne admitted softly, blinking her singular good eye as she stared at the screen, then smiled at Alphys, who had her claws clasped tightly together, mouth agape as she just stared forward.

"My, my." Hapstablook murmured as she sat on the couch next to Undyne, sighing softly. "That was indeed quite the sight. But it's always good to see more ghosts in leading positions in films!"

"Well to me, it could have used more action scenes but...well, I liked it! It was pretty good, don't you think?" Undyne asked of Alphys and Hapstablook as the ghost nodded.

And Alphys, well...

"...pretty good?" Alphys whispered, slowly turning to gape at Undyne, tears springing to her eyes. "PRETTY GOOD?"

Undyne blinked stupidly in surprise, tears flowing freely from Alphys as she grabbed hold of Undyne's pajama shirt and shook her back and forth. **"The most heartwarming, touching, beautiful, wrenching tragic war story I've ever seen in my entire life and you think it's just** **PRETTY GOOD** **?!"**  
 _  
"Uhoh."_ Undyne inwardly gulped, Hapstablook cringing as Alphys turned away, arms folded across her chest.

"You can show yourself out!"

...

...

...

...within a few months, the testing was done, and Father Michael pulled Bonnie aside at the science facility as they watched Frisk sit under a tree near the cave on Mount Ebott, writing in a large drawing pad using some big ol' crayons. "I had a feeling it was Asperger's and I was right. It's Asperger's Syndrome, it's on the Autism Spectrum of Learning Disabilities. Usually they tend to be more high-functioning than many other learning disabilities, so I wouldn't be too worried, Bonnie. It isn't something that needs curing."

"I think I'M the one who needs curing." Bonnie muttered. "I keep thinking back to the other parents. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis are getting greyer and greyer every day and they still hope against hope their child will come back. And Christa's not going to all because of the monsters." She murmured, sitting down in a nearby chair as they watched through the screen door in the kitchen they sat in. "I watched kid after kid go. Over and over. And I feel like I failed them." She sighed, hanging her head. "If the monsters hadn't killed them, I...I just keep feeling so angry about what they did!"

"I'm not going to deny what was done to those children is wrong. But you need to learn to forgive." Father Michael said softly.

"What if it was YOUR child who fell in? Wouldn't you want the people that killed them to face justice?" Bonnie quietly asked as she looked down at the little four leaf clover necklace she wore, fingering it slightly. "They've lucked out is what they've done. They faced stupid kids who couldn't fight them. But they need to own up to what they did. And I need to stop this once and for all. And I know just how."

Father Michael blinked as Bonnie rose up and looked directly over at the cave. "Their king is the one who issued the order. The buck stops with them. And if he goes, then their plan goes. I'm gonna make him face justice and avenge everyone who died. Someone has to take a stand."

"What about Frisk?"

Bonnie held her face in her hands. "I-I just...I..." She winced. "...I don't want to abandon them like Chang Smith did. I'll think of something." She said, going out the door to go speak with Frisk, Father Michael quietly watching her go as he recalled his conversation with Chang Smith's parents.

 _"We know it'd be against normal Catholic policy to have this kind of funeral for our son, but you understand that...we couldn't tell anyone what he'd done."_

"How do you even begin to tell people your son went that far? When we'd found him-"

"He's a child of God. The Lord will forgive." Father Michael had said, putting a gentle hand on both their shoulders and smiling warmly. "I'VE no right to judge. Your son will get a proper and a quiet burial when everything's ready. You've already been stigmatized enough for what he did to Bonnie. I won't have you be further crucified for the sin of finding your son had overdosed."

Within the next few years, Bonnie kept taking Frisk up to Mount Ebott again and again. Telling him how important it was. Telling him about the Monster War. Telling him about the kids. And telling him that if anything ever happened to her...to wait. To wait at Mount Ebott.

"Promise yer momma. Promise me."

She knelt down by Frisk, who hugged her deeply, Bonnie realizing that at age 7, he was already getting so big and wise for his age. So much deeper than other children.

"I promise." He said. "I'll wait for you up here. But you won't go anywhere, will you?"

"I can't promise that. My own mommy and daddy had to leave eventually." Bonnie admitted softly. "Not just cuz they aren't alive no more. Not just because they passed on. But...but because sometimes when y'all love someone, the best thing you can do is just step back an' let 'em do things on their own, without helping them. And when you get older, you need their help less and less. Do you understand?"

Frisk nodded. She had a feeling he did.

"I don't know what I did to earn having such a wonderful kiddo like you." Bonnie intoned, tears springing to her green eyes as she hugged Frisk even more tightly, the smell of cotton candy and bubble gum wafting up from his soft, long-sleeved frame. "Y'all the greatest thing God ever gave me."

And that was still her thought the next week, when she looked down the hallway and into Frisk's room at the orphanage, her hand covering her face. She didn't deserve someone so wonderful as him. Part of her wanted to be selfish. To just stay with Frisk forever. Yet every time she stared at him, she kept thinking of the many other children she'd seen going into Mount Ebott. She kept thinking of how many times she'd seen the pain and agony of parents losing their children to the mountain and the monsters.

And she didn't want Frisk growing up in a world where he had to worry about Mount Ebott. She didn't want ANYONE worrying about it ever again.  
 ** _  
"...I...can't...staaaay..."_** She whispered softly, standing in the doorway of his room, feeling the tears flow freely as she slowly closed it behind her, shaking her head back and forth. **_"Tomorrow I'll be onnn...my waaaay. So don't expect to find me sleeping in my bed, for when you wake up...I won't be theeeeere..."_** She softly murmured, one foot going in front of another. One foot in front of another.

All the way up to the cave. Arms spread wide, eyes closed, Bonnie Hatfield-McCoy sank into the depths of Mount Ebott. With a rifle slung over her back, a pistol in her pants and bullets in every pocket, she was determined to end this. To bring King Asgore to Justice...and go home, knowing Frisk would never, EVER be in danger from the monsters ever again. Knowing that nobody else would ever lose their child because of the monsters.

The Underground had to face Justice.

And now...a true hero had appeared.

But unbeknownst to her, a true villain had appeared to Alphys. She had been watching the tapes that were left by the king and queen, the home movies. It had taken weeks of sobbing and crying but she'd finally begun to get over Grave of the Fireflies...only to be floored and horrified even more so by what she discovered on the tapes.

"...Entry number...four." Alphys whispered softly as she sat in front of her computer, biting into her reptilian, dinosaur-esque lip. "I've been researching humans to see if I can find any info about their SOULS. I ended up snooping around the castle... And found these weird tapes. I don't feel like ASGORE's watched them..." She hesitated, and then hung her head, holding it in her hands, her voice a soft whisper. "...I don't think he should."

Turning the recording technology off, she turned away and looked over at the Souls as they floated about in their canisters nearby, casting rainbow lights across the dimly-lit floor of the laboratory. Walking over to the nearest one, she looked it over, biting into her lip. It was Christa's soul, that lovely shade of purple flickering through the lab as Alphys held the container up and brought it towards an enormous device. The machine was immense, with a faintly skull-like design, two immense "jaws" on either side and big sunken eyes, meant to hold onto Souls and extract what was needed. The entire machine, much like her friend, was carefully enchanted and finely crafted after days of agonizing all-nighters for this very purpose. It had taken so long to make the equipment based off her idea, but at long last...she was ready. "I am so, SO sorry about this." Alphys apologetically mumbled, almost fumbling over herself as she placed the container of the Soul into the center of the machine, the Soul continuing to keep flickering. "Please forgive me, Christa. I'm just so desperate, and if this works..."

The machine roared to life, light flaring up within the sockets, the "batteries" of the machine, bright and white and furious as it clamped down on the Soul, almost suckling on it as the Soul blinked a bit, quivering slightly and Alphys cringed. She felt slightly sick doing this, but luckily, the process was soon over, a vial of bright purple liquid sliding out of a compartment above the Soul containment canister as Alphys breathed a sigh of relief. It was done. The Soul was still functioning, it looked just fine.

"I think I did it." Alphys realized aloud. "...I...I DID it!" She whispered, clawed hands flying to her mouth, feeling a sense of joy rise in her, pure unbridled glee taking over her features as she hollered and whooped. One after another she experimented, and sure enough, within ten minutes every single soul she had had given what she needed. Soon Alphys was heading back to her computer, her face beaming with delight. "I've done it. Using the blueprints, I've extracted it from the human soul. I believe this is what gives their SOULs the strength to persist after death. The will to keep living...the resolve to change fate. Let's call this power..."Determination!" She proclaimed.

Yeah. Determination. She had a good feeling about this.

...

...

...

...Bonnie groaned as she dusted her large light brown jacket off, looking over her matching pants and the steel-bottomed boots she wore, all carefully maintained and retouched despite years of use. She picked up her large cowboy hat from nearby, putting it on her head, looking around the dark expanse that lay before her.

And at the little flower that was staring in shock at her. "Y-you're..." He muttered before slowly shaking his head. "Y-you, um...new here, right? I think I ought to show you how things work down here."

"You think I don't recognize that voice of yours even with that odd twang you got going on...Asriel?" She asked, Asriel quietly gazing back at her.

"...my name is Flowey now." He muttered softly. "...do you just want to see me suffer, bringing up what I used to be?"

"Nope. I'm gonna kill your dad for causing the deaths of five other kids."

Flowey blinked...and then laughed uproariously. "YOU? Kill him?! Oh, that's rich! You know what? You go ahead and try! I haven't seen a single one of them ever, EVER make it to him. But if you think you stand even a snowdecahedron's chance in **Hotland** at reaching him, I'd pay a bazillion jillion dollars to see you square off!" He chortled, sinking swiftly into the ground as Bonnie made her way through the purple depths of the ruins, slinking through the corridors, trying to avoid the monsters she saw.

Inching along hallway after hallway, she finally reached a lovely house in the midst of the ruins, seeing a figure sitting underneath the tree, looking down at a red leaf in her clawed paw, her expression quiet and sad as Bonnie stayed hidden, watching the ornately-dressed female goat monster look the leaf over.

"...every time this old tree grows any leaves, they fall right off." She murmured softly.

"It's natural for a tree to lose its leaves." Bonnie found herself saying, Tori looking up at her as Bonnie sheathed the hunting knife she had. "You look just like him. Asriel. That lil' goat kid."

Tori stared back at her for what seemed to be a long time, then finally, she spoke. "You're the one who helped him get back here. The girl from the church." She realized aloud. "Thank you for that. Even if...even if he didn't survive long enough to say much else about what happened, it..."

Bonnie could see the woman's eyes fill with tears, and she immediately felt sick to her stomach. "It made me feel happy to know someone cared enough to try and help my little boy." She whispered, covering her face with her paws as Bonnie quietly nodded. "You're going, aren't you? Going out there? I...I won't stop you. I know I couldn't. Your face is kind, but it's also old for one so young. I don't believe I could beat you."

Bonnie nodded at this, entering the house before briefly looking back.

"...why did you have to be so...nice?" She thought aloud as she descended the stairways, and soon found herself exiting a long hallway, out into the colds of Snowdin.

The pathway before her was dark and dreary, and her boots made a CRUNCHA-CRUNCHA-CRUNCH sound as she walked along the path, a sentry station up ahead. But unfortunately, there was also trouble. Two birdlike, faintly draconic beings were chatting with each other, one trying to bounce off jokes off the other, who was clearly his mother.

"So like I always say, an avalanche is SNOW place to be!" Snowy the Snowdrake remarked cheerily, as his mother Icedrake nodded a bit, Snowy holding up a pretend microphone made of snow as Bonnie cringed and realized she'd have to somehow get past them. Crap. What was she gonna do?

Trying to take the stealthy route, she inched towards the trees, slinking through the large oaks in the hopes that they wouldn't take notice, but then-

"Hey! Hey, you!"

"Eep." Bonnie froze, inwardly cringing at this as she turned her head, Snowdrake giving her a look, feathered wings resting on his hip as he pointed at the ground in front of him, Icedrake looking from Bonnie to him.

"Get over here! I got puns I wanna try, come on!"

Bonnie sighed. Alright, fine. She'd listen to his puns and then leave. "If I listen to your jokes, can I leave? I gots to speak to Mr. Asgore."

"Asgore Dreemur? The King? Ol' Fluffybuns himself?" Icedrake mused aloud. "Whatever for, miss?"

"It's _personal_." Bonnie said bluntly as she folded her arms over her chest and waited for Snowdrake to clear his throat. "Alright, kid. Lay 'em on me. Show me the funny."

"Alright, alright! CHILL." Snowdrake said, giving Bonnie a stupid grin, and letting the pun hang in the air like an icicle, Bonnie staring at him. "...nothing? Wow, talk about a...cold shoulder!"

"I oughta kick your ICE for those poor puns, bucko." Bonnie grumbled as Snowdrake now stared back at her.

"...was...was that supposed to be funny?" He grumbled angrily. "Leave the comedy to the professionals!"

"You ain't no professional. And it'll be a cold day in Hell before you become one if you don't lay off the ice puns." Bonnie snapped, turning away. "Now leave me be!" She muttered, Snowdrake angrily fruffing up his feathers, an icy blue aura surrounding him as he whipped his wing at her.

"Don't you walk away from me!" He yelled out, Bonnie gasping in agony, feeling something hard and cold slice across her arm and she instinctively whipped around, holding her pistol up from her pocket, years and years of Old West style training rising back up to lash back. And unfortunately, Icedrake shoved her son down...taking the shot.

A loud, horrific **CRAK** filled the air as the gun's bullet soared through the icy cold air of Snowdin and sent Icedrake reeling. She stumbled backwards, clutching at milky, faintly blue blood that was dribbling down her side as Snowdrake gasped in horror, Bonnie realizing what she'd done. "I-I didn't mean to, I'm-I'm sorry, I..." She muttered, Snowdrake wheeling on her, eyes blazing.

"You! You MONSTER!" He cried out, screeching as Bonnie took off, panting and heaving, Snowdrake's cries echoing through the air as Undyne's head shot up. The head of the Royal Guard glanced about at her soldiers as she ceased the target practice they were doing on some wooden targets by the bridge, and they stared at Undyne as she held her spear up.

"We've got trouble." She murmured. "Get into position and hide." The Head of the Royal Guard proclaimed, getting her helmet on as she snuck behind a large tree, magic spear at the ready. There was only one way that anyone could get to Snowdin, and that was over this bridge. And she would make sure any troublemaker never got that far.

A few minutes later, she got her target. A brown-haired, green-eyed young lass was racing towards the bridge, halting before it as she held onto a the rope with one hand, the other gripping her chest as she panted and heaved. She struggled to get her breath, glancing back at the forest she'd left behind. "Oh, geez, kid, I...I didn't mean ta do that, I...God, what am I gonna do?"

"What...did you do?!" Undyne's voice rang out as Bonnie glanced about, confused. "What have you done, human? Answer me and maybe I will show mercy and give you a swift end!"

"Who said that?" Bonnie called out, gasping and whipping out her pistol as it slightly shook in her grip. "Show yourself! I-I ain't afraid! I'm here to bring King Asgore to justice!"

"Justice? Oh, isn't that a laugh. A true hero has appeared, alright..."

And with that, Undyne stepped out from behind the tree, launching the spear squarely at Bonnie as she stared in shock, the spear embedding itself in her chest, making her flop down in a collapsed heap as Undyne shook her head. "But it isn't you."

The Royal Guard walked closer, the doggy members of Snowdin Squad at the ready as they held up their own spears, save for Doggo Junior and Doggo Senior, who had large swords of blue magic at the ready, their eyes shiftily gazing over the collapsed form of the young human. "...she's dead, right? She isn't moving." The black-patched form of Doggo Senior murmured before suddenly Undyne felt an odd, strange feeling well up in her. A feeling she faintly recalled back when she had somehow willed herself not to die in her fight against young Anthony.

And she saw the human child before her rise up, her eyes giving off a faint yellow/golden glow before she ripped the magic spear out from her chest and tossed it away, pistol held high as she cocked the hammer back. "This? Is NOT for you." She insisted. "Tell your men to get out of my way. King Asgore has to answer for what he's done. And so do you for what you just did. But I don't got nothin' against your men. So call them off. Let's fight fair."

Undyne's eye turned cold. "How did you survive that?" She demanded as Bonnie gave her a quiet, almost sad smile.

"God must hate me, I reckon."

"No dice, kid. You're coming in, and we're taking your Soul too." Undyne said coldly. "With yours, we'll have six. And with that, this means only one more will be needed before King Asgore can become a God and repay-"

But at hearing "Taking your soul", that had triggered a dark anger in Bonnie. The nonchalant way in which Undyne was discussing stealing her soul infuriated the human girl and moments later, Bonnie fired off her Colt Single Action Army. The bullet soared through the air, striking at the large, fluffy-but well-armored form of Greatest Dog, glancing off his armor. For a moment he had a stupid look of "Ha, you missed" on his face.

But then the next shot she fired off blew his ear clean of his head, making him whine and moan as his son knelt by him, the other Royal Guards racing towards the bridge as Undyne held her fist up, then brought it down.

 **"CUT IT!"**

The black-hooded, white furred Dogaressa and Dogamy held their immense axes up, bringing them down on the bridge ropes as Bonnie quickly clung tight, the bridge collapsing and sending her almost plummeting downward. She gripped the rope railing of the bridge tightly, still firing off her pistol at Undyne and the guards before a CLICK-CLICK sound made it clear she was out of ammunition. "Dangnnabit!" She yelled out, ducking to avoid a spear to the head as she looked down at the dark recesses of forest far, far below, cringing as she pocketed her pistol. "This is gonna hurt like ALL Hell." She mumbled, the spears slamming into the bridge around her again and again, barely missing her as she let go, and cascaded down, down, dooooown into the inky black depths of the forest far beneath her as Undyne stared in surprise for a brief moment.

But she quickly recovered, wheeling around. "Get all your weapons and meet me down there. We're not letting her get away. This time, we show the humans just how determined monsters can be! But first..."

She looked over the bridge, seeing Snowdrake dragging his wounded, cringing mother towards them, looking pained as he glanced from the downed bridge to Undyne. "I've gotta build another bridge and get Ms. Drake to Alphys." She insisted softly. "The kid needs to know his mother's gonna make it."

...

...

...

...meanwhile, far, far below in a nearly broken heap, Bonnie gripped her chest, howling in agony before slowly rising up, spitting out blood onto the white snow around her as she checked over herself. Yep. Everything still in place and in working condition. Well...except her chest, which felt like it was burning up from the inside.

Cringing, she staggered to her feet as if chains had been hammered into her ankles by someone that didn't want her to get up, and she rested against a nearby tree. She wasn't going to give up, not by a long shot. She would keep going, and she would find Asgore. Her kid had to know that his mother was going to be coming back home. She had a job to do. She would bring Asgore to justice.

The monsters would get what they deserved, she insisted to herself, wincing as she kept walking through the long, deep and dark forest, a series of caves off in the distance, the sound of running water filling her ears. Yes. They would...they would get what they deserved. They...

So...so tired. So...

Maybe just a...five minute nap?

THWUMP.

...

...

...

... "Oh. You's hurtie, aren't you?"

Wh...whuh? Was...was something...trying to lift her up?

"You really hurtie. Temmie help! Take you to Tem Village."

"This will be most difficult, no?"

"Don't be sad, friend! Temmie can do it! We have De-Temmie-nation!"

"Yeah!"

Slowly, she opened her eyes...and was now staring at cute little white cats with black locks of hair flowing down the sides of their head, all wearing the most adorable little yellow shirts and blue shorts you'd ever seen as she laid down against a wall in an entire village full of cats...and, evidently, a blue mushroom thing that was standing by a tall statue.  
 **  
"Ooh! Humans! Too! CUTE!"** The cats all proclaimed at once, clasping their paws together and beaming in delight as Bonnie stared.

"I'm in Hell. God finally killed me, and I'm in Hell." She reasoned.


	13. We All Fall Down

Bonnie couldn't believe what she was staring at, but there it was. She was surrounded by cats with black hair, all wearing clothing, and all fawning over her as a skeleton in a blue jacket and light blue slippers was sitting on a chair nearby, munching on what appeared to be a hot dog. And all of this in the shadow of an enormous statue of said cats, with a large blush mushroom monster of some kind standing in front of it as well as Bonnie stared in shock, just taking everything in.

 **"heya, kid. how are you?"**

"Where...am I?" Bonnie muttered as she rose up, cringing as she looked down at the red marks on her exposed arms, her jacket having been taken off. "Where's my jacket?"

"Tem had to spruce up! It all dirty." One of the "Temmies" remarked, holding up her jacket and her little satchel she had tucked away inside of it, a gift from the Lewises. Made of poly-carbon fiber, it was unbreakable, and she breathed a sigh of relief as she looked the contents over. Phew. All still there. "You SO cute in widdle hat!"

"Um...thank you kindly." Bonnie said with a shrug as she approached the statue, looking it over. It read, on the bottom, in big old stony letters, "Statue of Tem. Very famus. VERY!" With lots and lots of exclamation points. Looking down at the blue mushroom, she pointed at the statue. "So, um...these things are called...Temmies?"

"...hmm." The mushroom being said, its large cap tilted down as it tilted its head side to side...and then began to do a dance as odd music began to echo through the cavern. Bonnie blinked in surprise at this as it began to move back and forth rhymically. _**"Mushroom Dance. Mushroom Dance. What-ever-could-it-mean?"**_ It sang out.

And then it stopped, its "head" flipping up, squinted eyes glaring intensely at her.

"It means you've lived a life of sin. Don't talk to me." It said coldly, popping its head back down as Bonnie stepped away, seeing an all-too-familiar flower pop up next to him.

"So! Done it yet?"

"Not yet, no." Bonnie remarked as the flower that had been Asriel looked over at the mushroom, the mushroom doing another little jig.

"Don't you normally dance to express your pain at feeling trapped and helpless?"

"Yes."

"...your body is a cage." The flower murmured. "Hopeless...alone. Unable to reach the surface. Unable to see a new dawn. And you struggle uselessly." "Flowey" murmured softly as his petals curled about, the Mushroom Man nodding.

"Yes. My dance symbolizes my inner torment. My struggle to escape. But to no avail. My life is pain."

"...well, then..." Flowey remarked, closing his eyes as he and the mushroom began to groove back and forth. _**"Mushroom Dance. Mushroom Dance. What-ever-could-it-mean?**_ _ **Mushroom Dance. Mushroom Dance. What-ever-could-it-mean?"**_

Bonnie inwardly cringed at this. The faint echo of real pain underlying the former Prince's words hit hard inside her heart as the skeleton walked over to her, one eye faintly glowing with a soft blue hue as she could feel an odd tingling sensation rising up the back of her neck.

 **"well, well, well. where'd you get that LOVE, kiddo?"** He asked.

"L-Love?" Bonnie asked, frowning. "Whaddya mean?"

 **"see, when you kill something, you gain EXP. That's an acronym for "Execution Points", a way of quantifying the pain you inflicted on others. when you get enough EXP, your LOVE increases. LOVE, too, is an acronym. it means "Level of Violence". a way of measuring someone's capacity to hurt."** The low-voiced said, its tone somber and reflective...and faintly judgmental **. "the more you kill, the easier it becomes to distance yourself. the more you distance yourself, the less you will hurt. and the more easily you can bring yourself to hurt others."** He told her **. "and I'm Sans. Sans the Skeleton. nice to meet you."**

"I'm Bonnie Hatfield-McCoy. But can you tell me how do you know these things even exist?" Bonnie asked as she folded her arms over her chest. "Sounds like a load of malarky to me."

 **"my brother Gaster discovered them through...RESEARCH."** Sans mumbled. **"humans sealed us away over a millenia ago and he was still the Royal Scientist then, doing different experiments on the nature of the Soul for the King and Queen."**

"How many kids did he kill?" She asked, Sans's eyes widening as she looked squarely at him, and now HE felt a shudder rising off of him. "You've got the eyes of a killer, skeleton. I can see into your soul." She whispered, and it seemed as though the entire cavern was now dead silent, all the Temmies stepping away as Bonnie jabbed an accusatory finger into Sans's portly frame. "How many have you killed?"

 **"two."** He muttered. **"the first I caught by surprise. all she had was a ribbon, really. Didn't stand a chance. and the second one was this asian girl I got into a fight with and then I convinced her to stop and..."** He bit his lack of lips and closed his eyes, his mouth a taut line. **"i snapped her neck. I so...so badly wanted to get souls to get us out. to break the barrier."**

"and you think that excuses you murdering a kid? You think that makes you a big man, killing people who can barely fight back?" Bonnie growled.

 **"why do YOU have LOVE?"** Sans demanded.

"I accidentally killed a baby chick." She said, Sans seeing the look of pain on her face that flashed across it.

 **"how'd that happen?"** Sans asked, snapping his fingers as Tem the Shop Keeper brought over some hot chocolate for the two, Bonnie taking it and rejecting the obvious painted cardboard chips that came with it as she and the tubby skeleton sat on a bench of stone underneath a painting of a Temmie riding on a dragon.

"It'd been pushed out of its nest but-but it wasn't dead." Bonnie mumbled as she sipped on the hot chocolate, quietly staring into the cup as the brownness swirled about. "I felt awful, wanted to do SOMETHING. So I put it in my pocket and I was bringing it home but by the time I got there, it...it had died. My pocket suffocated it, I think." She managed to squeak out. "All because a cuckoo chick pushed it out. And I was so, so angry. I wanted to go and shoot that chick out of the nest for what it did for a long time, because it didn't seem right that something so little and cute had to die just for some big jerk to be happy."

Sans was silent for a long time. He just sipped the hot chocolate, and then quietly sighed as he looked at her. REALLY looked at her.

 **"how old were you?"**

"...I dunno. Six, I think."

 **"you're far too old in your eyes to be thirteen, I'll tell you that."** Sans said **. "your body is unusual, kid. It's like a living SAVE. If I had to guess, based off of Gaster's research into the timestream, your form RESETS every single day. Every bit of damage, every bit of wear and tear, you RESET. Your body treats aging as a disease, as damage, so you never get any older. At least, that's my gut."** He said, giving a small smile. **"and I got a** **big** **one, so I know what I'm talking about."**

"I wouldn't listen to you normally, but after all I've seen, I'm startin' to take more stock in it." Bonnie remarked. "Listen. I wanna get to the King. He's the one who ordered any humans killed. I stop him, this all stops, and the kids are avenged. But you and Undyne, well..." She bit her lip, looking up at him. "You guys got blood on your hands. I can't just let that pass."

 **"you don't gotta. I'll show you how to get to the King's place, but you might wanna disguise yourself."** he said, Bonnie giving a big smile as she held up the pouch she'd brought.

"Already on it." She said with a smile.

It wasn't too long before Bonnie had died her hair to a very vibrant shade of pink, and had given herself violet contacts and put on a fake pair of convincing-looking horns. All for one purpose: pretending to be a monster to blend in and get closer to the King.

 **"pretty good for dollar store disguises."** Sans laughed as she gave him a glower, the two of them making their way through Waterfall's halls, Sans gesturing at a large cave entrance over to the east. **"there. follow that to Hotland, it'll take you to the lab there, and to the north of that's the elevator. take that to the Core, which powers everything down here and through THAT...Asgore's castle."** He winked at her. **"ol' Sans'll keep an eyesocket out for you."**

"I doubt I'm gonna need your help." Bonnie said before she turned her head, hearing loud chanting coming her way and blinking in surprise. "Then again-"

But when she turned back, Sans was gone, and she glowered at the spot he'd been at. "How does he do...GRRR." She groaned, quickly looking busy as she sat down by a statue of a monster with its head bowed, reading her pocket copy of the Bible she'd brought with her as she saw a horde of monsters coming. Many had, of course, torches and pitchforks. It was hard for one monster though, the others were complaining at the lone blobbish THING that was sloughing along the rest of them from the doggy Royal Guard troops to a mer-horse to an armored, fairy-like thing with glittering wings to a cycloptic horned little impish creature to, most oddly enough, a frog king that appeared to have a beetle underneat its body. The lone blob had very stubby arms that were barely arms at all and it was struggling to keep its pitchfork held up as it walked alongside the-

Oh dear God in HEAVEN what was that...THING? It was disgusting! It looked disgusting, it sounded disgusting! It even SMELLED disgusting from where she was. It was a monster that resembeld a kind of hill, with slit eyes and tiny pupils, two nostrils over a mouth in the center of its form, three little stubby horns atop its bulbous head, and four slender legs, its voice giving off an annoyed, complainy "whine" to its tone as it looked over at the blobbish creature.

"Man, you SUCK at this." He remarked. "Ka-SIGH."

"Give Moldbygg a break, Jerry!" A fish-headed, Mer-thing of a monster mumbled, shyly biting into her lip as her little pale bluish/green body glanced about. "It made that pitchfork all on its own. It's impressive it can hold it."

"BARELY. Ah well. RUFF!" Doggo Senior remarked with a shrug. "We've gotta avenge my fallen comrade Greatest Dog! His ear was blown clean off and now he's shackled up in the lab with an infection to contend with!"

"Yeah, well, so is Snowy's mom! That human has to pay for what it did to her!" A sunglasses-wearing familiar-looking bird monster remarked. Evidently it was the same species as the "Snowdrake" she'd met before, and now they all walked towards her, a pair of what appeared to be living carrots also hopping alongside him. "Say, Veggie Sisters, how are you holding those pitchforks anyhow?"

"Telekinesis!" The first "Veggie Sister" remarked, the more burly-voiced Vegetoid smiling broadly as the slightly-fainter voice nodded. "We'll be throwing more than vegetables from thin air today!"

Doggo Senior chuckled a bit, then "harrumphed' as he cleared his throat, looking the unknown "monster" sitting by the statue over. "Excuse me, have you seen a human come by? Brown hair, green eyes?" He asked as she took off her cowboy hat to show off her "horns" and shook her head.

"Nope." She remarked, trying to put on her best Boston accent she could to cover up her natural Southern twang, sweating inwardly as the monsters all looked around at each other. "Why?"

"Cuz we gotta go kill it and take it's soul! Then we'll only need one more before Asgore can become a God and break the barrier, freeing us all!" Doggo Senior remarked as Jerry scratched his head.

"Hey, ain't this blatantly hypocritical?" He suddenly asked, all of the monsters staring at him and blinking in surprise.

"What?" The mer-woman esque monster asked.

"Think about it, Lemon Bread." Jerry said with a shrug as their torches sizzled and hissed under the droplets of rain that began falling down around them, landing with a PLUNKA-PLUNK on all their craniums as Jerry waved a hand in the air. "The humans sealed us away cuz they were scared we'd turn into a horde that'd go around hunting down humans to steal souls. And now look at us. We're a horde of monsters hunting down a human girl to steal her soul. I mean, ain't it hypocritical for us to say how awful they are when we're kinda proving the humans point about us?"

"...NOBODY LIKES YOU, JERRY!" Chilldrake snapped, kicking him in one of his legs, making Jerry howl as he hopped up and down, Bonnie cringing slightly as the monsters ignored his squeals of agony as he rolled around on the ground, flopping about like a fish out of water.

"Let's split up. We can cover more ground that way, right?" Doggo Senior remarked, holding out a paw. "Lemon Bread, you go with Moldbygg. Aaron, you're with me. Sir Whimsy, you and Double F go together and Astigmatism the Fourth, you're going with Chilldrake."

"Excellent idea!" "Sir Whimsy" said as Bonnie cringed, watching Jerry be left behind as they all wandered ahead. She sighed, hanging her head before lifting him up and dusting him off.

"...thanks, I...guess." He grumbled out, slowly slinking off as Bonnie slowly took the Winchester Rifle behind the statue where she'd hidden it, and inched her way through the long recesses of Waterfall.

...

...

...

...silence permeated the dark and dank caverns of Waterfall. Or at least it did when there wasn't the unmistakable sound of gunfire cracking, and loud, pained cries that rang through the air like a bell. Doggo Senior gripped his swords as he and Aaron glanced around the room before them, a room filled with echo flowers, the "BANG" of the gun echoing over and over as Aaron wiped his brow.

"I, um, don't wanna, like, worry you or anything, but I've got a bad feeling the others are in trouble."

"Stay calm. Eyes open. And, uh...don't move." Doggo Senior added, his eyes turning to slits as he sniffed at the air and scanned the cavern around him, gritting his fangs as he took in deep, long breaths. "I'll track the human down with ol' Betsy." He remarked, pointing at his nose and giving a smug grin before a voice echoed out through the caverns, carried on the whispering wave of Echo Flowers from somewhere deep, deep within the darkness peering.

"Go home now or I'll shoot you."

Doggo glared as he looked about, trying to pin down where in the darkness the voice came from. "Who's there? No, no, I recognize that voice. Yer that human girl. You're trapped, girly. The Royal Guard's blocked off all exits in and outta Waterfall. You're not getting anywhere. Not with us Sweepers runnin' through."

"Look, I don't got no quarrel with you. I've only got eyes for Asgore, really. So just get on home. Or I'll MAKE you leave. Got it?"

"You think you're gonna scare us?" Aaron said, trying to sound brave as he flexed his muscles, Bonnie inwardly groaning from her position behind the pillar she was hiding behind. "Forget your rifle!" He boasted loudly, vainly hoping to recuperate his courage. "I'm rocking the real guns here!"

Bonnie's rifle took aim and fired, and Aaron HOWLED as he clutched one bloody, shot-through arm. "GAAAAH!" He screamed.

"Go home!" Bonnie yelled out. "It's just an arm wound, y'all gonna be fine just like the rest of 'em! Now get on outta here before I get real mad!"

"You've made ME mad! You're gonna die slow. Real...slow...for what you've done to me and my men." Doggo Senior roared out, the having-removed-her-disguise, now-fully-exposed Bonnie now stepping out from behind the pillar, rifle slung over her shoulder and hand hung over her holster.

"...move along, little doggy. Or this big dog'll move you along."

"Let's see if your hands are as fast as your mouth!" Doggo Senior snarled, whipping his swords out and racing towards her.

BANG!

He stopped, blinking as he stared, looking about. She held the Single Action Army Colt to her mouth, blowing smoke away before twirling it, sticking it back in its holster. "What was that?"

"The warning shot."

"Warning shot? You think a warning shot's gonna scare me!?" Doggo Senior snorted.

"It should. It's lodged about two inches in your gut, looks like." Bonnie commented wryly, Doggo suddenly feeling the dull aching in his belly as he dropped his swords and looked down, paws coming away from his stomach to feel milky blood sloughing off. "Y'all in no shape to fight now. You." She gestured at Aaron who gulped as she waved the pistol at him. "Get him to the hospital with the others. And tell Asgore if he sends ANY other monsters after me, he's gonna get the same. I only want HIM." She snapped, Aaron whimpering as he nodded, carrying Doggo Senior away with his good arm as they hobbled down the long pathway, back the way they'd came...

Before Bonnie slouched down by the pillar and held her head in one hand. "Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT!" She yelled out, her echo ringing through the air. She hadn't wanted to actually hurt them! She'd hoped that just shooting off her gun would scare them, but every single one of them had launched an attack at her. Whimsalot had fired off hordes of horrific moths to tear at her flesh, Final Froggit had shot beams from his eyes, Lemon Bread, OH LORDY, Lemon Bread's singing!

She cringed as she pinched the space between her eyes. She couldn't get through to Hotland. She was stuck. She...

 **"kid, you're making it hard for me to not break my promise."** Sans muttered as he popped up behind her. **"i mean, you're kind of becoming a whole lot like Chara-"**

Bonnie suddenly wheeled on him, eyes blazing and furious as she gripped him by his jacket, Sans flinching as she shook him. " _Don't you EVER compare me to her!_ Chara was a rotten little girl who kept hurting people for fun! She was twisted and sick and she just knew how to hurt!"

 **"and almost all you've done down here is hurt."** Sans muttered. **"you're doing this to get even. to get revenge."**

"I don't WANT to hurt people!" Bonnie screamed back, tears springing to her eyes. "I'm NOTHING like her! All I want to do is stop the Monsters from killing kids!"

Sans held his hands up, closing his eyes as he sighed. **"maybe you do believe that. But one man's justice is another man's revenge."**

"That's the damn stupidest thing I ever heard." Bonnie muttered. "There's a right and a wrong and the distinction ain't hard to make."

 **"...then how come you're crying?"** Sans quietly asked. **"if you think you're right...why are you so hurt inside?"**

Bonnie let go of Sans, slowly stepping away and holding her head in her hands, shaking it back and forth. "I...I don't know. I just wish they'd leave me alone. If I could just get to Asgore, SEE him, face him, then I'd know if this was right. I know that much."

 **"y'know, you can't do a lot of thinking on an empty stomach."** Sans reasoned with a wink. **"tell ya what...come with me. "**

Soon enough, she was back in Temmie Village, and was sitting on the stony bench with Sans, munching on a "Hot Dog" as she saw a Temmie approach her, its face filled with concern as it gently held out a paw. Bonnie didn't so much as flinch as the little Temmie patted her leg and gave her a comforting smile. "You seem hurtie inside."

"I am." Bonnie mumbled. "I'm stuck here and I can't go home and I can't do what I came to do. Thanks for taking me back, though. It's nice of you Temmies to let me stay."

 **"the Temmies got a big heart."** Sans admitted with a smile. **"even if humans are allergic to them, they don't mind. they just wanna share the love."**

"Yeah, Tem hear that humans allergic to Tem." The Temmie that was speaking to Bonnie admitted as she hopped up onto the stony bench, Bonnie finishing off the "hot dog" and scratching behind the cat-like monster's ear with a small chuckle. "Tem understand." She remarked as another Temmie walked by and the first Temmie sighed. "Cuz Tem...also allergic to Tem!" Temmie admitted, suddenly having little red bumps popping up all over her.

" _Oh_." Bonnie remarked.

"HOIVES!" Temmie proclaimed, clutching her face before sighing and hopping off the bench, making for the Tem Shop to get some cream for her "hoives", as she had so eloquently put it, Sans putting an arm around Bonnie's shoulder.

 **"look, kid, I'm gonna do you a little favor. I'm gonna take you right to Undyne, and if you want...you can do whatever you want to her."** He admitted, Bonnie whipping her head in his direction, eyes wide in shock as he nodded. **"you've got a quality about you, kid. You could change everything, I got a feeling in me. you could end this all if you wanted to. but I wanna know if that's really what you want. so I'm gonna take you to Undyne's place. and then I want you to think about Temmies."**

Bonnie just gaped in surprise. "...Temmies? Why?"

" **think about how they're like you with that bird. and how they're like monsters."** Sans remarked as he clapped her shoulder and then, suddenly, with a faint WOOSH...

Bam. Sans had teleported her straight to a large, fish-head of a house with a giant fanged "door", and a large welcome mat with a fish skeleton on it. The very windows of the house were tilted and growling, with "hair" atop the house and fins on either side as Bonnie gaped at the sheer display of it all.

"Are those...scales on this house?" She asked, feeling over the side of it as Sans nodded.

 **"yeeeeeep."** He remarked. "Her friend Alphys designed it for her. It was just a big ol domey thing but then she worked her magic."

It was then that Bonnie heard the sound of footsteps approaching and she quickly hid behind the "ponytail" of the house, biting her lip and readying her pistol as Sans stood in front of the door, hands in his pockets as he nonchalantly leaned back and forth. And then, before her eyes, HE appeared.

Golden locks of hair with a full beard. Two giant white horns that curled back and a goat-like face. Regal silver armor with golden pauldrons, and a flowing, resplendent, dazzling cape of purple. With his soft, pale eyes and even softer smile, you could almost forget who this was. But even despite the jolliness his face radiated, his form also radiated pure, raw power, and Bonnie knew. She KNEW this was Asgore Dreemurr. The King of All Monsters.

"Ahh. Sans." He remarked, his voice deep and cheery, making Bonnie flinch. It was like if Santa Claus was a goat dude. "How is my favorite prankster?"

Sans smiled warmly back **. "i'm fully ready for when April rolls around. I'm really BONING UP on my pranks."** He remarked. **"and I'm gonna get the Temmies to help me out with this."**

"Have they forgiven you for the constant jokes about them?"

 **"can I help it if I've got a million of 'em? Like, like listen to this. what's a Temmie's REAL favorite food?"** Sans asked, raising a nonexistent eyebrow up as Asgore raised an actual bushy brow up. **"TEMMIE-PURA!"**

Asgore laughed, loud, long and booming as the door slid open and Bonnie struggled not to snort out a laugh of her own, Undyne letting them in as Bonnie slunk to the back, peeking in through a window into the soft blue and pink-dotted walls of the kitchen/living room, the three of them sitting at a table as Undyne held up a large kettle of tea.

"Golden Flower tea!" She told Asgore. "Your favorite, just like always." The fish-woman cheerily remarked as she began pouring Sans and Asgore some tea. "Thanks for coming by. But you didn't have to come too, Sans."

 **"nah, I kinda did. I mean, I know a thing or two about humans."**

"Yeah, I...guess you would." Undyne murmured as her smile faltered and she sighed, Asgore sipping on his tea briefly before he put the teacup down, folding his paws in his lap.

"Many monsters have been taken to the labs due to the injuries the human sustained. Regrettably, infection has set in to their wounds. We've never contended with human weapons. Not in ages, and not...this type of weapon. Our armor is not truly suitable for fending off bullets." He sighed. "So I intend to personally forge better armor to outfit you and the rest of the Royal Guard, so that you may better protect yourselves. But tell me..." He looked squarely in Undyne's direction. "What is this human like?"

"She hurt my fellow monsters." Undyne muttered. "I find it hard to want to know anything else about her. She's gone too far." She growled, clenching her clawed fists tightly.

 **"her name's Bonnie Hatfield-McCoy."** Sans said as he sipped his tea. **"she wants to hunt you down for the order you gave out."**

"She probably found out through Christa, I'm guessing." Undyne reasoned. "If it's the same Bonnie she talked about, the one from the church..." She then turned her head slightly, looking over at the door to her room.

"Perhaps it'd be best if we talked in there?" Asgore remarked.

"No way, you two. No nerds allowed. Well..." She bit her lip, the door slightly creaking open before slowly closing again. "...maybe SOME nerds." Undyne whispered, her voice pained.

 **"we blew our chance with Christa, but now Alphys is working on something new."** Sans admitted with a small smile. **"she says she got the inspiration from you, Undyne. the idea is taking the ability humans have, that "DETERMINATION", the thing that makes their Soul so strong, and using it to improve monsters. she thinks maybe it can help monsters cross the Barrier so we might not even need seven human souls."**

"That does sound promising!" Asgore murmured, and for a brief moment a smile stretched across his features, but then he sighed, and hung his head. "But that little one still...and all those other poor dibbuns, they deserved better. In truth, I wish you had succeeded those years ago with your time machine." Asgore murmured as he hung his head and rested it one one giant hand, glancing over at Sans. "When that human girl Christa fell down to the Underground, and you worked together with her on that time machine, I felt hope swell in my heart once again. It meant going back to the way things were. A way to fix everything. And now...now we are back to Plan B. Back to..." He cringed as he rested his hands on his legs and Bonnie saw him almost dig his claws clear through the metal that covered his knees.

"Hey, Asgore, don't-don't go cryin' on me." Undyne insisted nervously as Asgore bit his lip and hung his head.

"And I know you didn't like her. But my time with Chara and Asriel, when Toriel and I were still together...when we were a family, those were some of the _greatest_ days of my life. And I've give up everything if it meant I could just have my family back again." Asgore whispered. "...I don't understand how Chara died. Wasn't...wasn't I a good father? How did she get so _sick_?"

Bonnie slowly slunk down, resting herself against the back of the house, and dejectedly hung her head. She was silent for a long, long time, listening to Undyne and Sans gently patting Asgore, hearing their comforting words before, at last, she heard him leave, and heard Undyne head into her room, Sans walking around the back of the house to sit down next to her.

 **"soda? I snuck it out of a cooler she keeps in her cupboard."** He remarked.

"...I get it now." Bonnie admitted softly as she slowly turned to look into Sans's eyes. "We're all awful and we're all great. We're all victims and we're all crooks. We're all the same. We're all "monsters". And we're all...Temmie."

 **"oh?"**

"Temmie don't..." Bonnie cringed. "She don't MEAN to hurt me when she tries to hug me or glomp me. But she does. She can't really help it. Her instinct just gets the better of her, she's just got that itch in her! But she never really wants to hurt anyone, even if she ends up doin' that. She's just like I was with the bird." The thirteen year old sighed. "And you monsters are like that too. You're not really bad. You don't REALLY know you're hurting people. You don't mean to. You're just too wrapped up in what you want and you don't **see** you do. But we're the same. Humans do that too." She sighed.

 **"feel any better, then?"** Sans asked.

"Better? I dunno, I feel...wiser." Bonnie admitted. "I guess sometimes Justice calls for Mercy, don't it?" She decided. "It ain't right for me to be so mad and angry when it ain't all your fault you're doin' this any more than it's all my kind's fault for being scared of you."

 **"well, we CAN be scary."** Sans admitted. **"I mean, a guy like me will spook you right outta your skin."** He said with a wink, Bonnie giving him a big grin before kissing him on the cheek, making him visibly blush.

"You are a CARD." She chuckled, giving him a smile before she slowly reached behind her neck and took off her necklace, giving it to Sans. "Hey, um...thanks for showin' me all this." She admitted. "But I wanna try and...check in on those people I done hurt." She murmured. "I think it's best I get to that lab they took 'em to. And time I faced the music."

Sans looked her over, one invisible eyebrow arched high. "you sure?" He softly inquired. **"you do this...there's no going back. Alphys probably won't let you go after all you've done."**

Bonnie nodded. "Enough people been hurt." She mumbled. "...I'm gonna make sure I'm the last one."

...

...

...

...Frisk groaned as he rubbed his head.

He had waited and waited. Waited and waited. But Mommy hadn't come back.

Every afternoon, he'd stood at the opening to Mount Ebott, at the abandoned scientific facility, leaning against the tree and looking into the dark abyss beyond. Every afternoon after school he had waited until it had gotten dark, and Father Michael had taken him back to the orphanage.

Waiting and waiting.

Then one day, he could wait no more.

"I can't staaaaay! Tomorrow I'll be on my waaaaaaaay! So don't expect to find me sleeping in my beeeed! Cuz when you wake up...I won't-be-theeeeere!" Frisk had sung out, making for Mount Ebott, a bandage over his cute little nose after an incident at the orphanage, a little "walking stick" in one hand as he climbed up to Mount Ebott one Sunday morning, intending to go where he'd never gone before.

However, his attempt to carefully ease himself down into the cave got fouled up when he'd tripped on a tree root. Breath caught in his throat, a horrified gasp croaking out from his mouth, Frisk had found himself twirling, and soon, falling, falling, down, down into the dark recesses of the Underground...

A bed of golden flowers breaking his fall. And now...

A golden flower with an oddly...cheery face...staring back at him.

"Is this Heaven?" He asked aloud. "I kind of thought Heaven would be more...well lit."

"Howdy! I'm Flowey! Flowey the Flower!" The flower remarked, Frisk's mouth hanging wide open.

"...no, wait. I'm in Hell. God has killed me, and I'm in Hell." He deadpanned.


	14. Like Mother, Like Son

Bonnie took a deep breath before she knocked on the door to the laboratory in Hotland, Alphys the triceratops-esque monster looking out at her, her lab coat stained with a mixture of food, grease and oil. "Oh, another monster?" She asked, Bonnie currently in her dyed hair, fake eyes and with her hat off to show off her "horns". "Are you injured too?"

"I, uh...wanted to try n' help. I imagine a lotta people done got shot, so..."

"Well as much as I'd like to say it's easy for me to treat a bullet wound, it isn't." Alphys sighed as she led Bonnie into the lab, and towards a door in the back, where an elevator laid. Taking the elevator down to the bottom past level upon level of various technology, Alphys exited the door at long last, revealing an immense laboratory level with dark green walls. It was fairly brightly lit up as she led Bonnie through a doorway across dark green and white-tiled floors and into a large hall, various monsters all lying down on big beds with plump pink comforters and fuzzy white sheets.

"Whenever there's things like an earthquake or the like, Asgore orders everyone possible to get to the lab and the core. They're the strongest-built buildings."

"Can y'all really fit in here?"

"You're clearly too young to remember, but...not exactly." Alphys sighed. "At times we got all stuffed together like sardines in a can." She admitted as she led Bonnie over to a form that made her wince. The first "victim". "Ms. Drake here's fallen victim to the same thing so many of the others did: infection."

"Ain't y'all got any pencillen or stuff like that Vaccines n' the like?" Bonnie quietly asked as Alphys sighed, hanging her head as she looked over Ms. Drake's patient clipboard, shaking her head back and forth in shame.

"We don't have any treatments for **disease** down in the Underground, nobody's gonna toss medical equipment down here, let alone vaccines. So all we can do is treat their wounds and keep feeding them. It sustains them, but won't cure them. That's why I'm trying to use "Determination". The Power of the Soul. The Ability to Change Fate." Alphys murmured. "But I need to test it out first before I do anything. So I'm going to use something I think Asgore will like. The idea came to me almost overnight, why not use the first golden flower that sprouted from in his palace? He loves golden flowers just like Ms. Chara did!"

Bonnie inwardly flinched and watched as Alphys walked off, putting on her best Boston accent as she knelt by Ms. Drake, who murmured as she tossed and turned in bed. "Is...is Snowy here? I-I don't want him to see me like this."

"He's not. Um...how do you feel?" Bonnie quietly inquired, seeing the sweat pouring down the Snowdrake's face.

"I feel so...so _COLD_." She whispered out. "I'm  scared. I'm really, really scared."

"Well, the...the doctor's doin' all she can." Bonnie said nervously. "W-would you like me to get you something to drink?" She asked.

"W-Water, please. J-just a normal glass." Ms. Drake managed to mumble out, Bonnie quickly nodding and taking off for the nearby water cooler, Alphys looking over another patient chart before looking up at Bonnie.

"How, um...how bad is the infection?"

"Spreading horribly. I'm being as sterile as I can in treating them from masks to gloves, you should get some too. Papyrus is over there, he's Mr. Sans's brother and he'll be happy to show you what you need to do." Alphys said, gesturing behind her. Bonnie looked over to the room behind her, a very large skeletal figure who was, like Sans, clearly some kind of living skeleton, but wearing a lab coat FAR too big for him that he clearly wasn't made for. Despite this, his attitude was so gosh-darn-cheery, his smile so broad and beaming, his voice so loud and yet infectious that it was even making the grumpy-shy Lemon Bread smile a little as she lay in her own bed.

"DO NOT WORRY! THE GREAT PAPYRUS KNOWS THAT ALPHYS WILL BE TAKING GOOD, GOOD CARE OF YOU!" Papyrus proclaimed, holding up a small platter of what appeared to be little cocktail weenies. "AS WILL I. COCKTAIL WEENIE?" He said, wearing gloves and boots that were, like the coat, also clearly too big for him.

"Um, could you tell me where the gloves and boots and labcoats are" Bonnie asked as Lemon Bread took a cocktail weenie from Papyrus's tray, Papyrus smiling back at her.

"OF COURSE, RIGHT IN THE CLOSET TO MY RIGHT." He said, Bonnie walking over to it and looking through, putting some on as Papyrus kept talking. "THE MONSTERS HERE ALL SAID THEY GOT INFECTED BY A HUMAN WEAPON. AS DID DR. ALPHYS. WHY DO YOU THINK THE HUMAN INFECTED THEM?"

Bonnie inwardly cringed again, feeling her blood turn to icewater as she struggled to speak. "Well, I...I think the human might have been scared of them."

"OH, THAT'S UNFORTUNATE. BUT I CAN UNDERSTAND. I MYSELF AM VERY SCARED OF UNDYNE SOMETIMES, BECAUSE SHE LIKES TO NOOGIE PEOPLE!" Papyrus admitted as he brought the tray over to Aaron, Brother of Aaron, Son of Aaron B. Aarons, son of Aaron A. Aarons. "BUT I KNOW SHE DOES IT OUT OF LOVE. I'M SURE THE HUMAN DIDN'T MEAN TO REALLY HURT ANYONE. THEY PROBABLY JUST NEED A FRIEND TO KNOW WE MONSTERS CAN BE NICE!"

"Would you be that friend?" Bonnie asked as she put on the gloves and Papyrus went to join her by the water cooler to bring food over to the other patients in the first hall, the skeletal monster nodding enthusiastically.

"OH, **ABSOLUELY**! I'D MAKE MY FINEST PASTA FOR THEM! ANY SPECIES THAT INVENTED SUCH A WONDERFUL DISH CAN'T BE THAT BAD!"

Bonnie was stunned by this as she walked over to Ms. Drake, giving her the glass of water. "You cook?"

"OH, YES. I AM AN UNPARRALELLED SPAGHETTORE!" Papyrus insisted. "AND EXPERT AT PUZZLES. EXCEPT THE HOROSCOPE. I'VE STILL YET TO CRACK THAT."

"Well, like my dad always used to say, the greatest mystery of all is Love." Bonnie wryly chuckled. "It'll always be quite the puzzle. Even I don't understand it." She remarked, shaking Papyrus's hands. "It's good to meet someone so...cheery." She admitted. "It's kinda refreshing." Bonnie added.

"OF COURSE! A PLEASURE TO MEET YOU TOO, WHOMEVER YOU MIGHT BE." Papyrus admitted as they walked down the hall towards Alphys, who was staring at a large, skull-like machine, a container in the middle of it with a floating heart clearly visible, Alphys slightly biting into her lip. "WHAT IS THAT?" Papyrus asked.

"That's a human soul, Papyrus. It's...it was Christa Lewis's soul. The human who helped me and Sans and G...helped us on the time machine?" The dinosaur-esque monster quietly intoned as Papyrus blinked a bit, then looked at Alphys. "What is it?"

"DIDN'T..." Papyrus seemed to hesitate, bony features filled with confusion, eye sockets staring off into the distance as if trying to focus on something far, far away. "I THOUGHT PERHAPS THERE WERE MORE HERE, I...SOMETIMES I FEEL LIKE I'M FORGETTING SOMEONE." He mumbled as he scratched his head. "...WELL, I HAD BEST BE OFF! I'M GOING TO MAKE SOME WONDERFUL PASTA FOR ALL THE PATIENTS HERE TO ENJOY!"

"Great!" Alphys said with a big, phoney smile before Papyrus walked off and she cringed. "And I guess I'll have to break out the industrial-strength garbage bucket for after that's over." She sighed. "He's a great guy but his cooking's more nightmarish than the stuff I saw in "Grave of the Fireflies"." She muttered, sniffling a bit. "Maybe he'll eventually cook something edible one day."

"You were about to say someone else. Someone with a "G"." Bonnie admitted. "Who was it?"

Alphys stared quietly at Bonnie, then over at the machine, sighing. "His name was W.D Gaster. He got scattered across time and space. I can barely remember him, but...I remember that much. And I remember I...I miss him." She murmured. "I was so excited when Christa called us for the first time. I got to see a real human, TALK to a real human!" The excitable young scientist murmured, eyes going wide and dreamy behind her glasses as her high-pitched, nerdy voice quavered. "It was like a dream. We were finally meeting the species we'd heard so much about and read so much about! There were nights we'd spend hours talking about nothing but Studio Ghibli films, and when Christa came down we could spend hours more just lying on the couch, me, Sans, Gaster and Christa, all watching old anime and just laughing at the silly dub voices. We had...hope."

She trailed off, her voice slightly breaking on the last word. "Hope that the war would be utterly undone and we'd be back on the surface. That we'd make sure the awful tragedies of the past never happened. But now I'm stuck with this, and with the faint hope that the power of the Soul can somehow go into Monsters. That maybe we could pass through the Barrier if we had the right stuff. The stuff humans have." She remarked.

"Really?" The young disguised human girl remarked. "Well, what're you planning, exactly?"

"Well, Asgore had asked everyone outside the city for monsters that had "fallen down." And all their bodies are here today. They always beg for water and then turn comatose, and...and pretty soon they'll turn to dust." Alphys murmured.

Bonnie froze on the spot. They were all going to die REALLY die She knew they were badly off, but...she didn't think...

"Like...as in today, maybe? Or _tomorrow_?" Bonnie found herself squeakily asking, Alphys sighing as she nodded.

"Yes. But I had an idea. "What happens if I inject "determination" into them" If their Souls persist after they perish, then...well, Freedom might be closer than we all thought. Of course, we'll need a vessel to wield the monster souls when the time comes. After all, a monster cannot absorb the Soul of other monsters unless they're a Boss monster like Asgore or Undyne or the like, and even then I've only seem them able to handle it very rarely, for the most part it evidently...well...it makes THEM turn to dust." Alphys cringed.

"Makes sense, though. According to all the notes Gaster left on humans, they can't absorb each others souls. So the idea is I'll use something neither human nor monster-Oh!" The dinosaur-like being smacked her forehead. "Oh, stupid me! I gotta go TEST it!" She said, racing over to the machine and pulling out a vial from the side compartment of it. "I've brought the flower into the lab, I have to go inject it." Alphys remarked, taking off as Bonnie watched her barrel down the hall...

Soft laughter echoing out from behind her as Flowey rose up through the floor. "Well, well, well. What ARE you doing here?"

"What're YOU doing here" Bonnie muttered.

"Making sure I'm **made**. I planted the idea in Alphys's head and now she's off to make ME. I'm the Prince of this World's Future, Bonnie Hatfield-McCoy. I have Determination...of a sort. I exist almost utterly outside Time and Space, and can fool around all I want with how things play out! Or at least, I COULD."

His smile turned into a cold scowl as he looked her over. "It's gotten harder and harder ever since you humans came down. I guess you have more Determination than I do. But answer me this. Why haven't you gone after Asgore?!"

"Because Justice sometimes calls for Mercy." Bonnie said as she took off her hat, and began removing her horns. "They're not bad people. Not really. They're just kinda stupid and dangerous and they've done bad THINGS, but they ain't bad people."

"... _BOOOORING_!" Flowey groaned, shaking his head back and forth. "Y'know, I used to be a fan of all that Saturday Morning cartoon special stuff, oh, let's all hug and kiss and frolick in the fields of friendship! It's **MAGIC**! _Pffffft_." He stuck his tongue out, blowing a raspberry. "It's so pathetic. This isn't some cartoon. You won't be able to hug your way out of everything. You shot about ten monsters. They're probably die if something's not done."

Now his grin was the work of demons, his voice twisted and flanging and sick, like something that had crawled out from under a rock and deserved to stay there. "And you waste time with worthless pity! Well you know what I'm putting you out of your misery. I'm just going to RESET back to when you first came here and...and..." He blinked, trying to focus on something, his body flinching over and over. "Reset! **Reset** , already! C'mon! What in the..."

Bonnie found a smile spreading across her lips. "Y'all can't do your little party trick, can ya?" She asked, folding her arms over her chest. "I think yer just about done playin' around with this world. Now GIT." She growled, pulling out her pistol and pointing it at Flowey. "Before I change mah mind about Mercy." She remarked, Flowey giving her a baleful look.

"Don't ever have kids!" He muttered hatefully, vanishing a moment later into the ground, the tile popping back as Alphys gasped, now standing in the doorway as Bonnie tossed the gun to the side, turning around to face her.

"Yeah. It's me."

"Y-You're...you're th-the..."

"If you wanna call Undyne...go ahead. I'll just...wait outside." Bonnie sighed as she walked past the stunned Alphys, who turned her head to stare at the gun Bonnie had left behind, blinking a bit before picking it up. It felt so oddly heavy in her hands, and yet so...oddly warm. Strange.

Shivering, she pocketed it. Next dumpster she found, this was going in the trash, she thought aloud before suddenly getting a shiver, turning to see what appeared to be a faint form visible in the shadows beyond. A form that had an oddly familiar cracked face.

No, it...it couldn't be.

 **Could** it?

"G-Gaster Gaster, is that you?" Alphys quietly asked, approaching the shadows in the corner before reeling back, reeling back as her cell phone began to ring and ring and RING, louder and louder still as she held it up to her head, the THING moving towards her, its many mouths opening and closing, nothing but sorrow and cruelty etched onto its face, a horrific laugh echoing out from the phone. "Who is this, b-bit busy right now!" She whimpered out.

"LOREM IPSUM DOCET." The voice over the cell phone spoke in an all-too-familiar tone, the thing speaking at the exact same time as it towered over her, its body forming a perfect "heart" as it laughed and laughed and began to fade from side, going down, down into the dark depths beneath the Determination Extractor.

"S-Sorrow...itself teaches?" Alphys murmured in confusion. "...what did he mean?"

...

...

...

...Undyne glowered with the fury of a hurricane as she stared at the cowboy-hat-wearing human that was calmly standing in front of the lab, the Royal Guard watching on as she raised her spear up. "NNGGGGAAAAH! All this time and tracking and you were right under our nose Just hiding in the lab"

"Not "hiding". I just wanted to check in on-"

"The monsters you SHOT" Undyne snarled, Bonnie biting her lip before tossing the knife she had away, as it sailed through the air, sizzling and popping as it struck the magma far below, Undyne giving Bonnie a frown. "What're you doing?!"

"I'm not gonna fight you." Bonnie insisted softly, shaking her head back and forth. "I just ain't."

"Then you'll just DIE!" Undyne roared out, arm shooting up, her spear barreling forth as Bonnie cringed, the spear striking her clear through the stomach as she gasped, blood splurting out from her mouth as if she'd just choked on a dozen ketchup packets. She cringed, slowly rising back up to her feet, heaving and panting, the spear dissapating as Undyne frowned and readied another one, launching THAT through the air.

Again and again, it struck through Bonnie, her health being whittled down over and over. "C'mon! Fight back!"

"I'm...n-not...fightin' ya..." Bonnie managed to gurgle out, mouth filling full of blood as she stood her ground, the spears dissolving slowly as she felt her body fail, flopping to the ground before her eyes closed...

And then reopened as she gasped, clutching her chest and cringing, her yellow soul faintly flashing before them all as she rose up, shaking her head back and forth. "I'm not doing it. Not gonna fight you." She insisted, Undyne racing forward, gauntleted fists held up. Bonnie swerving to avoid her strike as she ducked and dipped. Undyne's fist almost caught her on the side of her head as Bonnie swiftly ducked again, then rolled away to avoid a punch to her chest.

Leaping back up, she sidestepped Undyne's next swing, Undyne furiously glaring at her face. "Stop running away!" She roared out. "And let me kill you!"

"I told y'all, I ain't a-fightin!" Bonnie insisted, grabbing hold of Undyne's gauntleted fist as it sailed towards her, another fist shooting towards her as Bonnie grabbed hold of that too. "It doesn't gotta be this way, Undyne. I'm sorry about what I did, I am. But I don't wanna hurt you no more."

"HA! **You?!** Wanna spare ME!" Undyne snorted as she shook her head back and forth, her yellow eye glinting darkly. "Get this through your head, human. I will NEVER! Accept! Your _MERCY_!" She bellowed loudly in Bonnie's face, making her cringe before she headbutted the thirteen-year-old girl in the face, knocking her back, her Soul still shimmering before her as her hand shot forth. "And I will NEVER give up!"

It grasped around Bonnie's soul. And Bonnie realized then in that moment Undyne was simply trying to rip her Soul away from her to kill her, realizing only too late as it was yanked away and she felt a feeling like absolute greyness creeping over her, her body falling to her knees, the light beginning to fade from her eyes as she looked down at her hands.

"At long last...with this, only one more remains. Then we can repay humanity for all its cruelty towards us." Undyne said as she held Bonnie's soul up, her smile suddenly fading as Bonnie stared deep into her own soul, her final words echoing in Undyne's head and across Hotland long, long after her body had turned cold.

 **"Vengeance isn't justice."**

...

...

...

... "Ugh."

Alphys pinched the space between her eyes, the computer screen flickering slightly as she spoke, recording more of her journal entries. "Things aren't going well. None of the bodies have turned into dust, so I can't get the Souls. i told the families that i would give them the dust back for the funerals! People are starting to ask me what's happening. what do i do" She moaned. "And of course it gets WORSE. Experiments on the vessel are a failure. It doesn't seem to be any different from the control cases." She groaned, shaking her head. "Ohhhh! WHATEVER. They're a hassle to work with anyway. The seeds just stick to you, and won't let go. And..."

She sighed, turning her head, looking at a photograph on the table, picking it up. Her...her and Undyne and-

"Now that...Mettaton's made it big, he never talks to me anymore." Alphys then cringed, putting the photo back, "harrumphing". "Except to ask when I'm going to finish his BODY." She muttered. What an insensitive jerk. "...but I'm afraid if I finish his body, he won't need me anymore...then we'll never be friends ever again!"

She blushed, pulling at the collar to her labcoat, cringing. "N-Not to mention, every time I try t work on it, I-I get really SWEATY." She mumbled out, blushing deeply before ending the journal entries, pushing herself away from the computer on her rolling chair before heading to the DT Extractor, staring at the yellow soul flickering in the container on the nearby counter. She'd used every single other soul except that one.

"...I don't know what else to do." She murmured. "Nothing is happening. I don't know what to do." Alphys murmured, taking the Soul out of the container, putting it into the machine as she began quickly fiddling with the console, booting it up. "I'll just keep injecting everything with "Determination." I want this to work." She insisted aloud, taking out her tape recorder and speaking into it before ending her little voice chat, biting her lip.

"PLEASE let it work."

Elsewhere, Undyne was sitting on her front porch, looking down at the cowboy hat in her hands. She tossed it over and over, staring at it for what seemed to be a long time, growing hotter and hotter under the color. Why WHY did the girl's final words kept reverberating in her mind

 _"Vengeance isn't justice. Vengeance isn't justice. Vengeance isn't justice."_

"You wouldn't understand. This is all we have. Our only way left outta this place. All we GOT. One man's vengeance IS another man's..."

But that platitude died in her throat. Deep down, she didn't really buy that. In her own way, Undyne was even more black and white in how she viewed the world than Bonnie had been. Cringing, she took off walking, headed for the garbage dump as she caught sight of two scavenging kids. "Hey!" She yelled out, the cat one poking her head up from a trash bin as she tossed the cowboy hat at them. "Here. Take it. It's yours. Doesn't fit me." She muttered, Catty looking it over in her paws, going "oooh" as she and Bratty looked down at it.

"Ooooooh!"

Unbeknownst to them and to Undyne, Alphys was finally getting results as Snowdrake's mother let out a soft breath, Alphys's hands flying to her jacket pocket as she whipped out her tape recorder, and pure joy filtered into her voice.

"One of the bodies opened its eyes." She whispered.

...

...

...

... "Everyone that had fallen down...has woken up. They're all walking around and talking like nothing is wrong. I thought they were goners..."

A sigh.

"Seems like this research was a dead end... But at least we got a happy ending out of it... I sent the SOULS and the vessel back to ASGORE. And I called all of the families and told them everyone's alive. I'll send everyone back tomorrow."

A click. The tape recorder cut off, and Alphys calmly snuggled up under the covers, allowing sleep to slowly sink into her.

Before a loud crash woke her up. And everything came tumbling down around her.

...

...

...

...pure panic. "no No NO NO NO **NO!** Monster'sphysical forms can't handle "determination" like humans can! With too much determination, our bodies begin to break down!

...everyone's...

...melted together...

...and the flower's  gone."

...

...

...

..."The families keep calling me to ask when everyone is coming home. What am I supposed to say I don't even answer the phone anymore." The being murmured as he read the entry aloud, the fan blowing harshly, cold air conditioner air biting at his long-sleeved form as the being winced, its voice harsh from disuse, its "hand" nothing more than a stubby appendage as it passed over the screen. He then moved past a refrigerator, approaching the next screen as it lit up with green neon words, spelling out another entry. "Asgore left me five messages today. Four about everyone being angry. One about this cute teacup he found that looks like me."

The being would have smiled at this had he a proper face. "Thanks Asgore." He chuckled, shaking his head back and forth. "Oh, dear King Fluffybuns...dearly beloved. How I miss you. And Alphys, you..." He cringed as best he could with his unnatural, nearly-gone face, nothing but the faintest of indentations to reveal anything had ever been there. "You sound so...desperate." He murmured, heading towards the next screen-

Before halting in place. Okay, he was DEAD sure that one of the refrigerators had been shaking about. He whipped around, looking squarely at it. "...are you coming out?"

Silence. Nothing moved. Sighing, he moved over to the next screen and its despairing, final words, sadness permeating every syllable. "I spend all my time at the garbage dump now...it's my element."

It's long, slender, stubby-ended appendage found its way to its "face" as the piece of Dr. Gaster sighed, looking over at the sink where some more..."pieces"...were hiding. Then it slowly dipped its head and slank back to where it had come from. If only it had two arms. Then it could at least give his old friend a hug to comfort her.

Unbeknownst to him, Alphys was not anywhere close to the lab. In fact, she was on her way through the Core, following behind the young Frisk, a nervous smile on her features. "You'll finally get to go home! Isn't that great" She asked him as he quietly bit his lip, briefly glancing back. He had so much he wanted to ask her, but...he wasn't sure it was right. She looked like she was about to cry, and Mom had always told him that making a girl cry was one of the worst things you could do.

"Thanks for everything, Ms. Alphys." Frisk said in his usual polite tone, giving her a nod as he approached the elevator. "I never would have made it here without you."

"Wait! I, um, I wanted to say goodbye and..." Alphys admitted. "I mean, there's something else I have to tell you."

"I don't mind if it's about Mettaton." Frisk admitted with a shrug. "I understand." He told her. "And Father Michael always told me I should forgive people, so I forgive you for that. You just wanted to make a friend, so I'm not that mad."

"It isn't just...I...I can't do this anymore." Alphys murmured, her eyes downcast, her tone sounding dead as she cringed and lowered her head. "...I've been lying to you about more than Mettaton. The truth is that a human can't pass through the Barrier on their own. It takes a human soul...and a MONSTER soul."

Frisk felt his heart leap into his throat. Oh no.

Oh NO.

 _OHHH NO._

"So that means if you wanna get on through the Barrier, well...you're gonna have to kill the nearest monster to get one. More than likely you'll...you'll have to kill Asgore." She whispered, looking up at Frisk, tears brimming in her eyes. "...I...I'm so sorry." She managed to blurt out before turning around, running off, arm over her eyes as she began to weep, Frisk looking down at his feet and biting into his lip before he slowly ascended up, up in the elevator.

It would not be long before he was greeted by a beautiful, long hallway with rising ivory pillars, the Delta Run flanking stained glass windows on all sides as bells faintly rang through the air across the golden hall. Frisk made his way through it towards the doorway at the end before suddenly there, in the middle, stood Sans.

 **"So. You've arrived."** He said, speaking in a tone that was far, FAR more serious and firm than he'd ever held. He actually sounded like he was taking everything deathly seriously. There was no humor, no warmness in his voice...it all sounded clinical and calm. **"The end of your journey is at hand. In a few moments, you will meet the king. Together...you will determine the future of this world."**

He waved a hand in the air. **"That's then. NOW? You will be judged."** Sans spoke, a singular eye faintly glowing with burning whitishblue energy. **"You will be judged for your every action. You will be judged for every EXP you've earned."**

Frisk tilted his head, confused. Sans held a hand up, cutting his would-be question off **. "What's EXP? It's an acronym. It stands for EXecution Points. A way of quantifying the pain you have inflicted on others. When you kill someone, your EXP increases. When you have enough EXP, your LOVE increases. LOVE, too, is an acronym. It stands...for Level Of ViolencE**." Sans intoned in that dark, quiet tone he was using. **"A way of measuring someone's capacity to hurt. The more you kill, the easier it becomes to distance yourself. The more you distance yourself...the less you will hurt. The more easily you can bring yourself to hurt others."**

Sans closed his eyes, his pupils no longer glowing as he bowed his head...and then raised it, his face now smiling warmly. **"ahhh. but you? you never gained any LOVE. 'course, that doesn't mean you're completely innocent or naive. just that you kept a certain tenderness in your heart. no matter the struggles or hardships you faced...you strived to do the right thing. you refused to hurt anyone. even when you ran away..."**

He shrugged **. "you did it with a smile. you never gained LOVE...but..."** He walked towards Frisk, and then gently, tenderly, embraced the kid, Frisk feeling Sans gently putting something in his hands as he looked down at it.

A beautiful little clover. It had, at one point, been part of a necklace from the looks of it, but had been somehow broken off, and now only the end remained. Yet holding it in his hand, Frisk could feel a delightful, pleasant, comforting warmth filling his body.

 **"you gained Love."** Sans finished with a whisper. **"does...that make sense?"**

"...I know this." Frisk murmured. "I KNOW this. This is...this is my Mom's, isn't it?" He asked as he took out his own, holding it up as he compared the two. His had been well-kept, the chain was still silver and glittering, and Sans nodded softly at him, confirming what Frisk suspected.

 **"your mom left some Love behind for you."** Sans said with a smile **. "she's waiting with the others for you in the room across the way from the throne room. can't guarantee you'll see her, but...she should be there. and I gotta say kid, you really impressed me. i thought your Mom was hot stuff, but you? you've been able to beat everyone. beat everyone without really BEATING them for the most part."** he chuckled. **"and your actions here will determine the fate of the entire world."**

He then hesitated, flinching. **"thing is, kid, if you refuse to fight, well, then Asgore will take your soul and destroy humanity. but if you kill Asgore and go home, monsters will remain trapped underground. so what'll you do?"** Sans asked.

"What would YOU do?" Frisk asked quietly. "I...I spent so much time down here hoping to make things right. And to try and find Mom and go home, but after all that's happened...I don't know what I'll do."

 **"ahhh, I'm the wrong guy to ask. if i were you, i would have thrown in the towel by now. but you didn't get this far by giving up, did you?"** Sans laughed, patting Frisk on the shoulder with a big ol' goofy grin. **"that's right. you got the gift of "Determination". so as long as you hold on...so as long as you do what's in your heart...i believe you can do the right thing. and you are one smart kid. you'll figure it out. at least I hope so. we're all counting on you, kid. good luck."** He said, giving Frisk a wink...

And then, he was gone, Frisk making his way through the long, golden hallway to the doorway at the end. And soon, going down another long, grey set of stairs towards a door that read "Memorial", with a sign beneath that said "Please be respectful: don't touch"."

Frisk bit his lip. He felt his heart becoming cold, as it it was being gripped by an icy set of claws that were digging in. But he had to know. He had to go in there.

Entering the steely grey room, he stared out at the collection of coffins, one eeeever so slightly open, a name plastered over it. "Chara." Frisk read aloud, seeing it was empty, looking at the other coffins before slowly pushing every single one open.

"Hope." A young African American girl. Her body had been almost utterly burnt to a crisp by what he knew had been a Gasterblaster. Her eyes were sad as her faint spectral form stared deep into his own, as if she had been waiting a long, long time for him to come here, and she wished she had more to say.

"Qiang." An Asian American girl. Her neck had been broken, and her faintly visible image gave Frisk a bow as she placed her hands together, Frisk respectfully bowing back with his head. Her face still had that youthful exuberance to it, a sense of bravery and courage still on her features even though she too seemed so sad to see Frisk.

"Neil." A young blonde-haired and blue-eyed boy in a tutu. Frisk blinked in surprise. A BOY wearing it? Odd. He hadn't expected that. But the voice that he'd faintly heard when he'd approached SAVE files hadn't sounded girly when it spoke about them, explaining what they did. He somehow seemed so much older than he was, as if he'd seen even greater pain than Frisk had. Frisk wasn't too sure that was possible given how many times he'd died over his trip through the Underground, but...still.

"Christa." A girl with very cloudy glasses, a purple shirt and messy brown hair, cute little face, adorable smile as she nervously smiled at Frisk, trying to look happy, but still seeming somehow sad. Frisk saw her clutching a notebook to her chest, realizing it had been HER who's notebook he'd gotten from Gerson. The one with the almost ineligible scratches. Had she been that helpful voice he'd faintly heard whispering to him in his heart when he'd faced down monsters to check them out?

"Anthony." The next one seemed familiar and yet unfamiliar. Sometimes Frisk could faintly see another figure off in his dreams, a girl with brown hair and a big, yet almost unnatural smile floating faintly behind the leering face of Flowey. Yet this smile seemed genuine, and this was a boy with a big heart on his apron. The red-haired boy smiled comfortingly at Frisk and waved, Frisk waving back.

The next name made his voice die in his throat.

" _MOM_." He whispered, that all-too-familiar face smiling back at him as she sat on her own coffin and looked deep into his eyes, putting her cowboy hat off her head and into her lap. Bonnie Hatfield-McCoy smiled warmly at her son, holding up her own little necklace as Frisk clutched his clover necklace deeply, making his way over to the coffin and holding it up, taking it off and putting it around the form of his mother, around her neck.

"H-Here, Mom, I...I think...I think y-you'll look...you'll look better in this, I...I kept good care of it, I really did..." He managed to whisper out, the tears coming freely to his eyes as he pocketed the little silver clover he still had.

"You really did become so much better than I could ever be." Bonnie whispered back, as her form and the necklace on her began to fade away with the others. "You really are the greatest gift God could have ever given me."

And with that, she was gone, Frisk wiping his eyes as he made his way out, heading to the throne room. The gardening knife in his pocket felt heavy, as did the heart-shaped locket...but he put that around his neck, placing the clover inside the locket. JUUUUST big enough to fit.

"So you're always "close to my heart"." Frisk softly said with a small smile. "Heh. You woulda loved that kinda cheesy stuff." He insisted aloud, entering the throne room as soft light filtered in to a beautiful place that was absolutely green and gold, a monster with its back turned watering some flowers as he hummed aloud. "...s-sir?" Frisk called out, wiping his eyes free of the tears.

"Just a moment!" The deep-voiced being remarked as birds chirped softly through the air. "I've almost finished watering these flowers!" He announced. "...aaaaand here we are!" He said, turning around, his face warm and soft as he looked at Frisk, very CLEARLY the same type of monster as ol "Goat Mom" was, with tender eyes that locked onto Frisk's own green ones. "Howdy, how can I-"

But once they locked on and he really, truly saw what Frisk was, his face _broke_ , and Frisk instantly realized he couldn't POSSIBLY fight this man. Asgore Dreemurr's face was one of absolute horror and sadness, and the human child realized that Asgore had never, EVER expected a human to reach him. Had clearly never WANTED a human to reach him. That look of absolute shock and sadness on his face told Frisk all he wanted to know...

Asgore really was a big ol' soft pushover. There was no way he was going to want to fight. Asgore's breath caught in his throat as he gasped.

"OH." He finally managed to get out, the watering can falling from his clawed paws before he looked slightly to the side, smiling nervously. "I, um...I so badly wish to ask you if you'd like a cup of tea, but...well, you know how it is." The King of Monsters nervously mumbled as he walked over to a nearby window and stared out it for what seemed to be a long time before turning back to Frisk.

"Nice day out today, huh? Birds are singing, flowers are blooming...perfect weather for a game of catch!" He chuckled, laughing a bit as Frisk rubbed the back of his neck.

"Did you play a lot of it with Chara and Asriel?" He wanted to know, Asgore biting his lip.

"Right here in this very throne room with my wife." He murmured. "...the time we had together were some of the best days of my life." The King sighed as he closed his eyes, hanging his head.

"...sir?"

"...you know what we must do. When you are ready, come into the next room." The giant horned being sighed, seeing Frisk flinch and cringe as he turned around and walked off through the doorway and into the next room. A room all-too familiar, that eerily resembled where he'd first fallen. Looking far above, he could see rocks had fallen in to block off what had clearly been an entrance to the Underground from ages ago and he thought back to the story the monsters had told, of Asriel desperately making his way back to his home, quivering a bit as Asgore shook his head.

"How tense." He remarked aloud. "Just try to think of this as like a...visit to the dentist." He offered, heading towards the next doorway, giant paw resting on the frame as he bit his lip. "...are you...ready?"

"...I don't know." Frisk admitted softly.

"If you aren't, I understand. Because, in truth..." Asgore mumbled out as he glanced back at Frisk, his eyes filled with pain. "... **I** am not ready either." He said, his voice a soft whisper as he entered the doorway, Frisk taking in a deep breath before mustering his courage to the sticking point and entering after Asgore.

There before him stretched out a near-endless abyss that stretched on and on and on, ending at a faint, barely-visible "door", waves of energy coalescing towards it over and over to form it. It was as if a never-ending hallway was stretching out before Frisk from some kind of twisted dream, and Asgore's voice was soft and barely audible as he slightly turned his head to look over at Frisk.

"This is the barrier. This is what keeps us all trapped Underground. If...if by chance you have any unfinished business..." Asgore quietly commented. "Please do what you must."

"I took care of that before I came here to meet you, sir." Frisk managed to say. "...had to..." He wiped some snot from his nostrils, taking in a deep breath. "H-had to say goodbye to my mom."

"...I see." Asgore spoke quietly, head bowed before he took in a deep breath. "...it was the girl, was it not? The most recent one. You have her eyes. Bonnie. Her name was Bonnie."

"You remembered?"

"...I remember all their names. I see them in my dreams. Not as much as...the others evidently do. But I see them." Asgore spoke softly. "As I should. After all, I'm the current caretaker of their Souls. And I suppose this is it, then. Ready?" He asked.

With that, he clapped his hands, and seven different containers popped up, all but one containing a floating soul of a different color. Green, yellow, orange, purple, blue and aquamarine.

That same, familiar voice. Friendly and helpful and wise, it echoed in Frisk's head and in his heart, like an omnipresent narrator that was always listening, always watching.

 _"A strange light fills the room. Twilight is shining through the barrier. It seems your journey is finally over."_

Frisk stood up tall.

 _"You're filled with DETERMINATION."_

"Human..." Asgore murmured, smiling nervously and sadly as he looked up at Frisk. "It was nice to meet you." He offered, and there was no hint of cruelty nor hatred nor sarcasm in his tone. Indeed, he almost sounded like he was about to cry as his head lowered even more, and he seemed to stare at the ground.

"...goodbye." He whispered, as his body glowed with pure red magic force, and with two swift stripes, everything went upside-down, and Frisk was now surrounded on all sides by fire magic that was so very different, and yet so very familiar, the faint humming of the Souls behind Asgore as the barrier made his long, regal cape whip about.

"I don't want to fight you, Asgore." Frisk whispered out.

Asgore's breath got slightly funny, his body quivering as he clutched his trident more tightly, hands trembling for a moment before fireballs began to twirl around and around Frisk, who ducked, avoiding the sweeping, blazing balls of reddish/purple flame as he panted slightly.

"I DON'T want to fight you, Asgore." Frisk said more loudly, Asgore shaking as he held his trident up, waves of flame shooting towards Frisk as Frisk cringed and ducked into a tiny ball, the waves barely missing him as he felt their heat twist around him. It was almost like being dunked into an oven, but he wasn't going to give up.

Asgore kept his head low, his grip on the trident now shaking a bit more.

"Mister Asgore, STOP this!" Frisk insisted loudly. "PLEASE. I don't want to hurt you **. I don't want to hurt** **ANYONE!** "

"I'm...so **sorry**..." Asgore managed to whisper, recollection flashing in his pained eyes. "So, so sorry. But I don't deserve any mercy."

Frisk cringed. He couldn't run away, like he had with Undyne. He couldn't talk Asgore down.

Did he truly have no choice?

The knife in his hand felt so heavy. But he raised it up.

And he charged forward, gritting his teeth, hoping against hope he could somehow make Asgore see reason. Asgore's trident swung through the air, glowing a faint orange color, but Frisk jumped through it, slicing at his armored form, knocking him back. Twirling the knife, he stood stock still, avoiding the next slice, this one of bright blue energy before he twisted about and slashed across Asgore's chest again.

The knife went CLANG, knocking Asgore slightly back, Asgore's breathing getting funny for a moment before he cringed, and Frisk could see the tears beginning to fall down his furry cheeks. "Oh no, I'm sorry, did I seriously-"

"Please, just...don't make this harder. I don't want you to suffer. _Please_..." Asgore's voice painfully murmured as his trident shot out, spearing Frisk and launching him back, Frisk gasping as he clutched at his chest, feeling the wounds and cringing, reaching into his pocket. The blue magic of the axe passed harmlessly through him as the King of Monsters swiped again, but the next time Frisk had to roll away, quickly managing to whip out his piece of saved Cinnamon-Butterscotch Pie and shoveling it into his mouth as fast as he could.

Asgore's body froze, his nostrils flaring as his voice murmured out a faint "...Tori..." Frisk cringing as he saw the pain on the lowered head of the King of Monsters. "...you kept that after all this time?"

"It doesn't have to be this way." Frisk said.

"...th-this is...this is for everyone's good." Asgore murmured, holding the trident up, gritting his teeth. He shot forward, swiping at Frisk, who rolled out of the way, the giant goat-like monster holding out a clawed paw as he whipped around, fireballs shooting through the air at Frisk. Frisk held up his knife, letting out a cry as he swerved about, avoiding the flames and shooting forward, slamming his head into Asgore's stomach before slicing up, knocking him further back.

The two circled each other, Frisk gritting his own teeth as he ducked his head to the side, avoiding more fireballs before launching himself forth again, slicing across the boss monster's chest armor, then slashing again, the Trident sweeping forth, knocking him through the air. Frisk landed on his back, King Asgore tossing himself up, up, bringing the trident down. But luckily, Frisk rolled to the side, then launched himself forth, the knife slashing at Asgore, who was panting more heavily than before.

Clutching the knife tightly, Frisk held still then rolled to avoid Asgore's swift flurry of trident/axe sweeps, and then leapt up through the air, the blade held high. He brought the bottom end down on top of Asgore's head, fists clutching it tightly in a kind of double-fisted karate chop, Asgore crashing back, the magical trident dissapating in midair. Asgore cringed as he slowly rose up to one knee, panting heavily, head slightly bowed as he closed his eyes.

"Ahhh...so that is how it is." He softly spoke, clutching his chest.

"Why did it have to be this way?" Frisk quietly asked. "Why couldn't you just hear me out?"

"I don't deserve any mercy after all I've done. It's **my** fault all those children are dead." The king murmured. "I can remember the day after my son had died. He had perished carrying young Chara to the surface, and the entire Underground was now devoid of hope. Our future had once again been taken from us by humans, and in a fit of rage, I declared war. I said that I'd destroy any humans that fell down here, that I would claim their souls to become Godlike, and free us from this terrible prison."

"Yeah, I heard about the tale from the monsters, and...from the Souls." Frisk mumbled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. "You wanted to destroy humanity, right?"

"Yes. To destroy humanity and let monsters rule the surface in peace. Hope entered the people's hearts anew, but my wife felt disgust enter hers. She left me, swearing to have nothing to do with my actions, and never returned." Asgore admitted to Frisk, shaking his head back and forth. "But in truth, I...I do not want power. I never wanted the Souls. I don't want to hurt anyone. I just wanted everyone to have hope. But I cannot take this any longer...I just...I..."

His voice began to break, the tears threatening to spill forth again. "I just want to see my wife. I just...I just want to see my _child_." His voice was now quavering, his head somehow hung even lower. "Please, little dibbun. This war's gone on long enough. You have the power. Take my soul and leave this cursed place."

Frisk looked at Asgore, blinking slowly...and then he pocketed the knife and gently lifted his giant paw off his armored chest, looking into the king's eyes.

"If it means I gotta kill anyone to go home, then I don't wanna do that." Frisk said. "Not now. Not ever. Never-ever- **EVER**."

"After everything I've done to hurt you...you'd rather stay down here and suffer than live happily on the surface?" King Asgore asked, his face looking like it was about to break, but this time, not from sorrow...but joy.

"C'mere. I'm gonna hug the Hell outta you." Frisk said warmly as real, true, genuine tears of happiness were filling the king's eyes as he gently embraced Frisk, who smelled so much like butterscotch and cinnamon, Frisk taking in the delightful buttercup smell of the king.

"Human, I promise you. For as long as you remain here, my wife and I will take care of you as best we can." Ol' "Fluffybuns" promised. "We can sit in the living room, telling stories, eating butterscotch pie, we could...we could be like a real family..." He whispered, the tears now flowing freely, and he had no desire to see make them stop.

"Come on, we should go. Toriel would love to find out that-" Frisk began to say as he broke the hug a bit to pull back and smile at Asgore's face...

Suddenly hearing that horrific familiar sound of "friendliness pellets" surrounding him and Asgore as Asgore gasped in shock, quickly shoving Frisk out of the way as the seed bullets that encircled him slammed hard into his body, making him gasp, Frisk's scream echoing through the room.

 **"NO!"** Frisk howled, hand held out, Asgore's giant body fading away into dust, leaving only his glimmering white monster soul behind...a single bullet hovering over it before it SLAMMED into Asgore's soul, shattering it like glass as a proudly smug Flowey popped out, the Six Human Souls circling around him as Frisk clenched his fists, angry tears of real fury popping into his eyes. "What did you do that for?! **YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO KILL HIM!** " He screamed.

"You IDIOT. You really haven't learned a thing, have you? It's like I told you when we first met. In this world..." Flowey said, his tone becoming sicker and sicker, his face morphing into a monstrous skeletal, laughing skull of a visage, his laughing smile the work of demons.

 _ **"It'S kIlL oR bE kILeD**_ _."_


	15. An End to the Nightmare

_Long ago, two races ruled over Earth:_

 _Humans and Monsters._

 _One day,_ _ **they all dissappeared without a trace.**_

 _WeLcOmE tO mY wOrLd! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA-_

* * *

 _Hope wasn't sure what was going on at first, but then she saw it playing out before her eyes. The possibilities of a hundred different timelines, everyone in the Underground's hopes and dreams were all playing out around her. She could see, she could SEE what had been, what was, what would be, in every possible way. This...foul, twisted, cracked being had destroyed everything. All of time and space was compressed into this one moment and she was watching death being played out over and over again to keep her in line. To keep her a slave._

 _She was watching...her own death. Sans's Gaster Blasters burning into her body as she pitifully whimpered, eyes pleading for Mercy that would never come. Or horribly speared through the chest by the Royal Guards as she tried in vain to run. Starving to death in Snowdin, collapsing in a heap, calling uselessly for help, burning alive in Hotland, screams echoing through the dark recesses as a foolish monster tried in vain to "heal" her with more Lava..._

 _But no, no the worst was Asgore's. She kept seeing that most of all. And the saddest thing was, she wasn't being killed by him. She was just dying right in front of him. Over and over she saw it, struggling to get through the barrier, hands uselessly whacking against it before sliding down, sobbing and crying, her little body giving out as he gently picked her up, looking down at her near-skeletal form. Without food, almost without clothes, nothing but a frail husk that had fought off hunger for one reason and one reason alone: the faint hope of seeing the sun again. Only to be told by the mournful king that you needed a human AND monster soul._

 _To come so far and fail at the very end, when she'd been so close...that was the cruelest cut of all._

Frisk was surrounded by the absolute abyss of pure darkness. It felt like he was being smothered by the inkyness that enveloped all, shivering slightly in his long-sleeved shirt as he wrapped his arms around himself and cringed. He bit into his lip as he made his way towards a faint, far off familiar golden glow that he was so used to seeing, trying not to be disturbed by the disgusting stench that was wafting through the air. It was so evocative, so very hard to understand. He couldn't quite pin it down. What was going on? Where was...everything? Was he at the palace still, right in front of the barrier? Was he in the Ruins? Had he fallen into another part of the Underground?

But he had a disturbing suspicion the answer was D. None of the above. He had a feeling that this was all that was left.

"Will you continue? Or...or try to restart?"

That same soft voice gently inquiring again. A familiar voice from inside his heart speaking up again. One who'd guided him for so long, telling him everything he'd needed to know about the many monsters he had met upon checking them out.

*Continue or restart?

"I'm going to continue." Frisk insisted softly as he approached the soft golden light off in the distance, and approached it. It was a "SAVE POINT". He'd been using it all through his adventure, the SAVES had provided him with warmth and comfort and above all...a sense of DETERMINATION. He had used them to find the right way forward quite often, and they'd been especially helpful with Undyne. She had come very, very close to killing him and he had come close to almost killing her because he had naively assumed that maybe if he'd just weakened her enough, she'd accept his mercy. After all, that's what the Froggits in the Ruins had said. If you acted a certain way or fought a monster enough, they wouldn't wanna fight anymore.

But it had become clear that sometimes you had to think outside the box to really succeed. And Frisk thanked God that the Save Points gave him a chance to do that.

Besides. He liked the tingle that went up his body when he touched them.

But as he touched this latest one, the tingle was a disturbing shudder as an immense, huge box of white and black popped up in the darkness before him like a pop-up ad, revealing a name, his "Level", and what appeared to be time he'd spent underground, and two simple words.

"THE END".

And then, suddenly, the box began to break. Something was punching through it, causing horrific, bloody red cracks to form in it with every strike as the words began to twist and distort, turning into two simple words:

"File Erased".

And then, with a final strike, it was gone. The box broke apart, Flowey's face smiling in that same disturbingly smug fashion it always did, looking down at Frisk before some static flickered across him. It was as if he was an old television with bad reception, or some kind of living glitch that was manifesting before Frisk's horrified green eyes.

 _Qiang had almost believed it wasn't possible. But it was happening. It was really happening. She was dying again and again, slain by monsters, surrounded on all sides, jeering and sneering as she struggled to get up, only to be knocked down again._

 _Sans's hand against her neck had been merciful compared to what these deaths were. The monsters had been unforgiving in this timeline. Without pity she had been killed piecemeal, struggling in vain just to die on her feet, horrific laughter filling the air as a single golden tooth gleamed in the dark maw of a disturbing-looking Sans the Skeleton, his face without a trace of regret..._

 _Yet even that didn't match the quiet, sad ferocity of Asgore. She saw this death above all, as he fought with tooth and nail and yet, somehow, still trying to hold back. Her arm had been severed, her legs were weakened, yet she would not yield as his hands trembled, holding the trident up. Her fist alit with flames, she had shot towards him, determined to end it, yet he was more determined than her, his spear impaling her through the chest again and again and AGAIN._

 _Even then she'd tried desperately to get back up, his face horrified. "Please, just...don't make this harder, you didn't have to suffer like this. I don't want you to."_

 _"You...you monsters just...hurt...everyone..." Qiang grunted out. "I have to...have to keep everyone safe from you. It's-it's what my family always does."_

 _"And I have to give my people hope." He had quietly said, head bowed as he raised the trident's end up, bringing it down on her head._

"Howdy! It's me, Flowey!" Flowey remarked, his face vibrating slightly, occasionally flickering static as his voice echoed out through the infinite abyss of darkness. "Flowey the Flower!" He laughed, sticking his tongue out and giving Frisk a playful wink.

"What in the world...?" Frisk murmured softly as he beheld this sight, eyes wide in surprise, mouth hanging open.

"I owe you a HUUUUGE thanks." Flowey laughed. "You really did a number on that old fool! Without you, I NEVER coulda gotten past him."

"You're a coward!" Frisk screamed out, shaking his fists as they hung by his side. "You knew you couldn't beat him in a fair fight so you waited until his back was turned and he couldn't fight back! You're nothing but a dirty little coward!"

"Well I guess it runs in the family, now doesn't it?" Flowey giggled, his grin the work of demons. He was happy, he was sick, he was like some disgusting little thing that God had stuck under a rock and was trying to crawl out again.

"What's that supposed to mean!?" Frisk said with a glower, Flowey just laughing.

 _Neil had managed to make his way past the monsters with some effort thanks to his unique abilities. But time and time again, it was clear he could not beat Asgore. He always, always fell to him._

 _Time and time again, the trident speared him through his chest or stomach. Time and time again, he was sent flying, his body cracking against the walls, sliding down in a broken heap. Time and time again, his frame was burnt alive by fire, his screams echoing through the palace as Asgore collapsed onto his knees, covering his face in shame._

 _And time and time again, Neil would approach Asgore, uttering the same type of phrase._

 _"You've killed me once before, you know."_

 _And thus Asgore would nod sadly._

 _"You've killed me three times before."_

 _And Asgore nodded grievously._

 _"...Asgore, you've killed me ten times before."_

 _...and Asgore nodded pitifully._

"It really does run in the family, that's for sure. We're not too different, really. Not when you get right down to it. I mean I saw your fight against Mettaton and Asgore. Saw all your fights!" Flowey went on, laughing a little.

"So you WERE following me." Frisk murmured softly. He had been so sure he'd seen Flowey out of the corner of his eye, far, far off in the distance, following after him. Now he knew it hadn't just been his imagination.

"When you WANT to, ohhh, you turn into a combat beast! Ol' "Fluffybuns" never saw it coming. He couldn't imagine you'd actually beat him! None of the other kids ever would! Or could." Flowey said, his face beginning to melt and twist and shift, now turning into an imitation of Asgore's cheery face. "But now, thanks to you..."

The face became a twisted and cracked bearded skull. "He's DEAD."

 _Christa had to see her own death continuously as Undyne's spears found their mark, her pleas for pity falling on deaf ears. Not that Undyne really had ears. But what had been more horrifying were the laboratory deaths._

 _Time and again she'd seen it, horrific accidents claiming her as she worked alongside Sans and Alphys and Gaster, her body incinerated in fiery explosions, or impaled by laboratory equipment, one her body scattered across time and space, leaving her soul behind in the horrified hands of Gaster as he and the others stared in shock._

 _Though even those were merciful compared to the experimentations. At times the scientists would be cruel, strapping her in, testing her, seeking ways to remove her soul and succeeding again and again. Acting without compassion, without morals..._

 _"Well, I suppose that's not true." The quiet, obscured face of Gaster remarked softly as he turned away from her, having drawn a red "X" over her heart with a marker, readying a scalpel as he shook his head back and forth. His head was a pulsating, burning mass of white flame, his expression impossible to see as he slowly turned back. "...I just don't really get much use out of them. I can't allow myself to. When you commit a Level of Violence like I have, you have no choice anymore. You can't go back."_

 _Yet this wasn't the death she saw most of all. The one that kept appearing most strongly was Asgore as he quietly knelt by her, looking deep into her eyes, past her cloudy glasses. "I'm truly grateful for all you tried to do for my people." He would tell her again and again, drawing her into a soft embrace. "Truly, I am. And I'm truly sorry for this."_

 _And again and again, her neck would be snapped. Someone had to be punished for the accident at the labs, for the destruction of the machine. For the failure of Hope. And she, who'd been living on borrowed time, would always be blamed, Christa seeing his pained face burning into her memory..._

Frisk felt tears momentarily spring to his eyes, Asgore's pained, horrified face still lingering in his mind, his monstrous death still burned into his memory as Flowey's face become a disgusting sneering grin. "And I'VE got the human souls!" He proclaimed, laughing sadistically. "I'VE got all the power! All of time and space is mine to command! There's only you...me...and my little batteries." Flowey remarked with that awful sneer.

"Let...them...go..." Frisk said through gritted teeth.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-let them go?! Are you kidding me?" Flowey laughed. "And why would I do that when I feel like this?! Boy, I've been empty for so long. It feels GREAT to have a soul inside me again!"

 _Anthony didn't understand why they kept hurting him._

 _Undyne kept screaming in his face as he slid down her spear, Anthony struggling in vain to break free. He wasn't Chara. Why should he have to answer for what she'd done? Why did she hate him so much?_

 _But even that hadn't been as bad as facing Asgore. The scene kept playing out in front of his eyes. It had been heartbreaking to hear him explain what had happened to Chara...and then to poor little Asriel._

 _The two had sat in the garden for a long, long time, neither saying a word, just looking at the golden flowers around them as guilt had sank deep into Anthony. He could feel nothing but regret over not getting down there sooner, regret over what the monsters had endured. His heart had broken upon hearing of Asgore's tale, and he had been unable to bring himself to even fight him._

 _"I can't do it. I just can't."_

 _"After everything the other monsters have done to you, you'd rather stay down here and suffer than live happily on the surface?" Asgore had asked, tears filling his eyes as he gently embraced him. "Human, I-I promise you, for as long as you remain, my wife and I will take care of you."_

 _Anthony had wanted to stay in that soft embrace forever. He didn't want to let go. It felt so natural, so RIGHT. But..._

 _"No." Anthony had finally said, quietly pushing Asgore back, shaking his head as he stood up. "That's just a fantasy, isn't it? I know that when you look at me, you're reminded of the human that fell long ago. You see Chara."_

 _"Yes, you have the same feeling of hope in your eyes." Asgore admitted gently, Anthony hanging his head._

 _"I know about the ancient prophecy your people have. That one day a savior will come from the Heavens. That they'll save you all. I..." Anthony held his head in one hand. "...I don't think I'm that savior. But I believe somewhere, in the world outside, there must be a way to free you from your prison. That someone will come who'll do what I can't. What...what my sister couldn't do."_

 _He stepped back from Asgore, and held up the knife he'd brought with him from Toriel's home, Asgore gasping in shock as he saw the tears coming to Anthony's soft eyes._

 _"I...oh God. I..." Anthony whispered. "I hate giving you this responsibility, but take my soul and seek the truth." He admitted, stabbing the knife into his chest. Harsh and hard, collapsing backwards as Asgore raced forward, Anthony feeling his soft hands gently lifting him up as he quietly and sadly laughed. "Ha-ha-ha...I'm...I'm sorry...I couldn't give you a simple, happy ending...but I believe your freedom...is what my sister would have wanted."_

 _The knife in the chest didn't hurt. No._

 _Asgore's face was what truly broke his heart._

"You...you..." Frisk growled as he looked up at Flowey's monstrous face as it licked its lips, eyes slightly closing as it concentrated on its "contents".

"Mmmmmmm. I can feel them **wriggling**..." Flowey whispered in a way that was almost erotic, Frisk shuddering in disgust as Flowey looked down at him, chuckling a bit.

"Awww, you're feelin' left out, aren't you?" He inquired. "Well that's just perfect! After all I only have six souls! I still need one more..."

His voice now boomed, loud and horrifying, echoing through the dark abyssal emptiness around Frisk as his face became that disgusting, fanged, leering face that Frisk hated so much, eyes dark and soulless despite his claims.

 **"BeFoRe I bEcOmE GOD!"**

"If I had a wood chipper, I swear to the ACTUAL God I'd feed you through it..." Frisk said. "You're making me really wanna go against my promise to not kill anyone!" He yelled out, shaking his fist at Flowey. "And you don't scare me!"

"Oh, I don't? Well I think I can change that." Flowey remarked with that sneering grin on his face. "For with my newfound powers...monsters."

Pop! The sweet face of Toriel now on display. "Humans!"

Pop! Now Frisk's own features staring back at him on Flowey's visage.

"EvErYoNe!" three circling, screaming mouths going around and around and around, laughter ringing through the air before Flowey's face turned into a dark, twisted Smiley Face that mockingly stared down at him. **"I'Ll ShOw ThEm AlL tHe REAL mEaNiNg Of ThIs WoRlD!"** Flowey roared, sadistically cackling. "Oh, and you can forget about escaping to your old save file. BECAUSE IT'S GONE _FOREEEEVEEERRR_."

Frisk's mouth became a taut line. He clenched his fists tightly. He could feel the heavy weight of that thing in his pocket, the locket against his chest almost pulsating like a real heart.

 _"I wish I could feel more regret over this. I truly do."_

 _Bonnie hung her head. She was wrapped in chains, head bowed, Asgore now standing tall before her. She had seen this play out a thousand times in a thousand different ways. Every time always the same. Judgment in one way or another._

 _This was the most common...she was now in the presence of hundreds of monsters as they glared at her from behind, Sans quietly staring, his hoodie almost completely covering his face as Asgore held his trident up and cleared his throat._

 _"You have been accused of causing the deaths of over 13 monsters because of this disgusting thing." He said, taking out her pistol and tossing it in front of her as she looked down at it, her cowboy hat having flopped off after she'd been tossed to the flowery ground by a coldly-glaring Undyne. "All of them have fallen down, tragically taken from us too soon."_

 _"Will we be getting their dust back?" Snowdrake's father quietly asked in the back, his cheeks lined with tears as Asgore held a hand up._

 _"I will call the royal scientist after this. How do you plead, human? Have you nothing at all to say in your defense?"_

 _Bonnie knew what was going to happen. She had seen it ten thousand times. It was playing out in front of her like a bad movie. And she always said the same sad, resigned line._

 _"I'm sorry for what I am."_

 _That made Asgore flinch and she saw the facade of authority collapse in his eyes. He looked disgusted with himself as Bonnie hung his head._

 _"I'd like to say Jesus has forgiven me. But I don't buy that either. Go ahead. Justice has to be done, right?"_

 _Asgore's hands quivered a bit as he raised the trident up._

 _"I'm so sorry, Frisk." Bonnie's voice faintly whispered before he brought it._

"Aw, but don't you worry!" Flowey cheerily intoned, giving Frisk a wink. "Your old friend Flowey has worked out a replacement for you!"

Frisk pouted a little. "Oh, aren't you nice? And what's that?"

"I'LL SAVE OVER YOUR OWN DEATH!" Flowey howled sadistically, his eyes like burning floodlights scorching over Frisk's soul, his mouth fanged and ravenous, a tongue sticking out that twitched eagerly, his voice distorted and sadistic as his jaws opened wider and wider with every sentence. "SO YOU CAN WATCH ME TEAR YOU INTO BLOODY PIECES. OVER...AND OVER! **AND** **OVER** **!** "

Frisk took a step forward, the knife held up high. A rather normal gardening knife.

...made for cutting through _weeds_.

"What? You..." Flowey blinked slightly. "Do you really think you can stop ME?"

"Yeah." Frisk spoke quietly, his voice filled with DETERMINATION as he tightly clasped the knife in both hands and held it before him. "I do. Time for me to do some WEEDING!"

"Hee hee hee hee hee..." Flowey giggled, shaking his head back and forth. "...you really ARE an idiot."

With that, Frisk's soul, vibrantly blazing red, hovered before him as he saw the six souls circled around where Flowey's head had been, and he could faintly see their spirits, all pained and struggling and screaming and sobbing as he grit his teeth and beheld the horror that was leeching off of them like the overgrown weed it was.

Frisk had not had the best time at the orphanage despite Father Michael's best efforts, mostly because he was so unusual. He didn't see the world the way other people did. He liked strange, weird things. He had sat through donated film after donated film, listened to some damn strange music, all because, to be honest, you didn't often donate stuff you LIKED to charities. You donated stuff you didn't really want or need. So Frisk had ended up watching some really freakish anime, really weird films, including incredibly strange creature features at Halloween, along with some REMARKABLY disturbing ones.

But one film he'd gotten to see without anyone else knowing had been "The Shining". The adults running the church's orphanage, with the exception of his mother, had all been having a little Halloween party while Bonnie tucked the kids in. But Frisk had soon snuck out of bed, eager to see what they were watching. He had, to this day, wished he hadn't, for he'd caught the last half hour of the film, the most disturbing parts of the film. The bathroom scene, redrum, an axe to the head, blood, blood, BLOOD, and that horrifying, frozen, terrible face of Jack Nicholson having perished overnight in a hedge maze. Frozen to death, his face had burned itself into Frisk's mind and he'd been unable to get that image out of his head.

That face had been downright scary to Frisk. The most terrifying face he'd ever seen. Because it had felt REAL.

...and even that horrific mug...had NOTHING on what was leering at him now.

It was some kind of plant, he could tell that much. Thick and muscular arms of many vines twirling together to form powerful clawed arms as the world around him flashed red light like blood, even more thick, spiked vines curling and uncurling from behind this THING that now faced him. Disgusting-looking pipes were connected to an enormous television screen that sat high above a twisted, split-open face with two fanged jaws that faintly resembled mandibles of an insect, and had large flaring nostrils.

Before him was a nightmare with four sets of eyes, two in that fleshy, fanged, split-open face, bloodshot and horrifying with pupils that were tiny pinpricks, another pair of eyes resting within twisting pipes that curled around the face and the screen in the shape of flower petals. Yes, it was like some enormous mockery of a flower, with a leering face split across the white screen of the television.

Two tiny slits for eyes popped up over a wide mouth before they opened wider, the eyes now a disgusting red color with sickening green pupils that were such a unique shade it made Frisk think of vomit, and a monstrous, unnautral laugh echoed through the air as the boy readied his knife, the mouth on the screen and the face resting under it laughing, high, cold and cruel.

"You...don't scare me." Frisk whispered.

"LeT's SeE iF i CaN cHaNgE tHAt!" "Omega Flowey" proclaimed.

The eyes within the rings flashed vibrantly, as burning white stars shot forth like shurikens towards Frisk, who ducked and weaved, cringing as a few nipped at his arms and legs. He ignored the burning sensations that rose, and desperately tried to ignore the horrific pulsating of the pipes in the back of this...THING. And he desperately tried to ignore the face.

Ohhh. The face. That mocking human face on the screen, all in black and white with a faint sneer on its face sometimes, other times mouth agape as if it yearned to swallow him up, appearing faintly...feminine. It looked like it was laughing psychotically as Frisk rolled away from the continuous burst of stars shooting at him, but even those weren't as bad as what came next.

The vines.

Thick and spiky and harsh, they shot out from Omega Flowey's form with the speed of a freigh train, KRAKKA-KRAKK-KRAKK's ringing through the air like machine gun fire as Frisk bolted across the blackness in a desperate attempt to escape, the eyes on that disgusting bisected face turning into tiny red dots before it too launched waves and waves of burning stars his way.

Worst of all though, Frisk realized to himself as he ducked to avoid the sweeping vines, was the smell. That rancid, foul stench that was burning into his nostrils. It smelled as though someone had tossed a bunch of bodies into a swamp and just left them to rot, and now nature was foolishly trying to cover up the scent with every bit of overgrowth it could lay on, but it was only making them smell ten times worse.

Frisk wasn't afraid. He'd not taken any joy in fighting Asgore. But Flowey had to be stopped. They had to. He leapt through the air as the eyes kept flashing, sending more waves of stars at him, and he sliced.

"OW." Flowey's distorted voice rang out, the enormous monster shaking. The attack had done two things.

Jack and shit. And jack left town.

"NOTHING?!" Frisk gasped aloud. No, not nothing. He had a feeling it did some damage.

Precisely ONE...damage. That was it. Frisk cringed as he avoided another sweep of the thing's vines as it sadistically cackled, its screen-face mocking howling at him.

"LoOkS aS tHoUgH tHiNgS aRe HeAtInG uP fOr YoU!" Omega Flowey roared as two immense flamethrowers popped out from the "armpits" of the beast, one on the left, then on the right, then the one of the left again as Frisk rolled away, feeling the burning on his back as he panted and heaved, wiping his brow as the television screen displayed a gigantic red "WARNING" sign with yellow letters and...

A soul. The aquamarine soul was there, one of the rings turning the same color as Frisk realized Flowey was using Hope's soul against him. He gulped as all the world turned staticky around him for a moment, and then he was surrounded by knives. Knives, knives, knives on all sides, circling around and around in a twisted pattern as Frisk spun and twirled about, flinching as one cut into his side briefly, taking in a deep, pained breath. He had to do something. He had to ACT. Somehow.

"HOPE!" He yelled out. "Please! If you can hear me!? HELP!"

*You called for help...

For a moment, there was nothing, the knives kept spinning around as Frisk began to anxiously look about, eyes darting left and right. But then...

Salvation. All of the knives turned into little familiar green bandaids with a cute little heart on the front, just like his favorite brand. They engulfed him gently, absorbing into his body as he felt his wounds heal, his clothes become patched up, his Soul swelling as he heard the voice of an African American child.

"Please, hold on. We're doing all we can."

The band-aids faded away then, as the image of Omega Flowey shot back onto the battlefield, the "face" on the screen giving out an annoyed growl. "WhAt?! YoU'vE bArElY a ScRaTcH!"

"What do you say we CUT to the chase?" Frisk remarked, leaping through the air again and slicing at the face. The beast quivered again, but Frisk knew he was using the knife equivalent of a peashooter. It wasn't doing much. Omega Flowey just snarled as enormous, cheery, Flowey-Face-Stamped bombs popped up, descending down all around Frisk as he bolted for his life, panting and heaving, running around and around. Omega Flowey laughed as Frisk kept running for his life to escape the massive explosions, one of them sending him flying through the inky abyss, landing flat on his face as he groaned and rubbed it in pain.

"HuMaNs HaVe SuCh WoNdErFuL tOyS fOr WaR!" Omega Flowey announced. "MaYbE a NuKe Or TwO wIlL mAkE yOu SeE hOw MuCh We AlL dEsErVe To DiE!"

Frisk flinched. That disturbing misanthropic attitude, that was...odd. Flowey had come off as a lot of things. But he had never come off as someone who hated the world. He wanted to control it as the "Prince of this World's Future" and all that stupid stuff. And he certainly didn't seem to think of himself as human, what was going on?

But he didn't have time to think a lot about it. He had to race away from oncoming vines as they swept towards him, and then-

"What in the?!" Frisk yelled out, mouth agape as finger guns pointed right at him from all sides and fired off severed fingers with cheery little Flowey faces at the end like bullets right at his tiny frame. They barreled towards him, one knocking him clear onto his back as he gasped, agony shooting through him as he rolled away from another one, Frisk glowering up at Omega Flowey.

"Here's a finger for you!" He yelled out, flipping the gigantic being off as another ring glowed and a new Soul manifested on the screen. The orange soul was there, and now Frisk was surrounded by gigantic hands with large **holes** in them-

Frisk shuddered. The hands moved in a circular pattern, a chilling tune echoing through the air, and he could swear he felt something weighing on the back of his neck as he heard the Riverperson's words echoing through him.

 _"Beware the Man Who Speaks In Hands..."_

"Someone...help me..." Frisk whispered pitifully, covering his head, the hands moving in closer, closer-

And then they changed, giving off cheery little "thumbs up" as he heard the voice of an Asian American girl.

"You have to stay strong. Don't let him get to you. You have to resist."

And somehow, Frisk wasn't sure how, but...he had a feeling she wasn't merely talking to him. He felt the pressure on his back fade as the hands embraced him, and the soft bathing glow of healing pulsed through him.

He had a feeling he could do this. He really did. The souls wanted to help. Even as he faced Omega Flowey's starry onslaught again, he wasn't afraid, and expertly wove through waves of stars, slashing at Omega Flowey again with his knife. "You don't scare me! You're just a sad little thing in a hole in the ground who can only feel power by hurting others!"

"Oh ReAlLy? WeLl GuEsS wHaT? I'VE GOT **AAAAALL** THE POWER!" Omega Flowey snarled back, deciding to almost immediately switch to using the next soul, the blue soul as Frisk braced himself.

Now stars kept him boxed in like a prisoner along a long line as ballet shoes rose up and down, up and down like a kind of trap you'd see in an Indiana Jones film. He carefully moved forward as best he could, avoiding their stomps as they threatened to come down and crush him, clenching his fists tightly. "I know you're out there! Help me!" He called out into the darkness. "NEIL!"

"My name was Neil Elliot." A voice rang back, a young voice of someone who was so sad, as the ballet shoes lifted and the stars became soft, gentle green musical notes. "I had the music in me. Don't let go...cuz you've got the music in YOU."

The warm embrace of healing magic, and Frisk was facing Omega Flowey again, who's screen-face was now visibly even more angered. Deciding to try an "oldie but a goodie", Frisk could see a faint glowing golden line form around him and he bolted out of it, just in time to avoid enormous "friendliness pellets" that almost slammed into him. Ring after ring popped up about Frisk's body and he dived out of the way again and again, twisting his form to avoid the sweeping bullets.

"BiGgEr Is BeTtEr!" Omega Flowey mockingly remarked, Frisk sticking his tongue out at him before one of Omega Flowey's "hands" clenched, the thick clawed arm now forming a gigantic venus fly-trap mouth that Frisk jumped away from. He then turned around, seeing hordes of flies shooting towards him and the snapping venus fly-trap mouth and he ducked into a ball, the flies barely missing him. The horde swept over Frisk's body, each one of the flies being gobbled up as another fly trap mouth opened on the OTHER side, Frisk now twisting and twirling to avoid the horde of pests.

Not content with that, Flowey kept launching more waves of stars at him. "StAnD sTiLl!" He roared out.

"Nope." Frisk remarked right back. "I like being alive."

"DeAd iS BeTtEr!" Omega Flowey crowed out as Frisk saw him using another soul. Now it was the purple soul, and Frisk was trapped on all sides by immense, steely notebooks that opened up as immense words shot towards Frisk, trying to slam into him and crush his tiny body.

Frisk carefully weaved about, Omega Flowey's voice ringing through the air. "YOU DO NOT STAND A CHANCE. YOU'RE NOT TURNING THE TIDE. YOU'RE BARELY HOLDING ON." He insisted loudly as words like "Despair" and "Fear" and "Murder" swept all around Frisk. "YoU wIlL dIe HeRe!"

"Help me." Frisk whispered, biting his lip. "Please, help me like the others did."

And then the words changed. Relief. Hope. Protect. Mercy. Dreams.

"Keep calm and carry on. You KNOW...you can do this." A girl's voice told him softly in his mind as Frisk now faced Omega Flowey's ugly mug, avoiding more vines that surged towards him.

"You won't win, Flowey! Don't you understand that even now? You're the BAD GUY, and the bad guys don't win."

"HOW CUTE THAT YOU THINK THAT!" Omega Flowey's voice chortled, its face mockingly staring down at him. "YES, AIN'T THAT CUTE. BUT IT'S WRONG. EVIL OFTEN WINS OVER WHAT YOU CALL "GOOD" BECAUSE IT DESIRES TO WIN SO MUCH MORE. AFTER ALL. LOOK AT US. WE'RE THE EVIL ONES. AND WE'RE GOING TO GET WHAT WE DESERVE!"

"What're you TALKING about?" Frisk yelled back, ducking to avoid some more waves of stars, rolling out of the way as he panted and heaved. He was getting kinda tired avoiding all of these...

"PEOPLE LIKE US ARE SCUM. ALL OF US ARE SCUM. I'M ENDING ALL OF IT. STARTING WITH YOU NOW CURL UP IN A BALL AND DIE SO I DON'T HAVE TO LOOK YOU IN THE EYE WHEN I KILL YOU!"

Frisk frowned. What was going on with Flowey? It was almost like he had some kind of split personality.

...did he? Frisk flinched as he ducked, more hordes of flies swarming around him as he stared up into Omega Flowey's monstrous face.

"...I feel sorry for you." He finally said. "You're so powerful and big and all you know how to do is hurt people. You don't know anything about love. About friendship. You just seem sad to me."

"OH, YOU WANT US TO FROLICK IN THE FIELDS OF FRIENDSHIP AND FAMILY? WELL THEN HOW ABOUT A LITTLE BARBECUE? NOTHING LIKE FOOD TO BRING A FAMILY TOGETHER." Omega Flowey remarked. "AND I'M GONNA PUT YOU ON A SPIT AND ROAST YOU!"

With that, the Green Soul was displayed on the "Warning" screen as gigantic frying pans hovered high above Frisk, and he raced around, panting and heavnig. It was like being shoved into a sauna, waves of fire were descending down from above as Frisk cringed, bolting about, trying not to get burnt alive. It was almost like Toriel and Asgore all over again!

"Come on, help me out here!" Frisk muttered out. "Please?"

And then the fireballs quivered and shook and with a POP, they turned into eggs, Frisk smiling warmly as they flopped onto him, his body absorbing them as he licked his lips, feeling the delightful taste of eggs on his tongue as a gentle voice spoke.

"Forgive her, Frisk. She knows not what she does. But you'll know what to do. And what NOT to do."

A few moments later, they vanished, the face on the screen now showing signs of being really, really FURIOUS. Gritting teeth, eyes sunken and cold, Omega Flowey let out a hateful roar as...THINGS sprung from its body like leafy worms with human mouths that chomped and gnashed their teeth. They bounced about, Frisk taking off across the inky blackness to avoid their surging forms as he cringed, barely avoiding one of them as it came inches from slamming into him.

More and more waves of stars swept towards him, but Frisk jumped up again, slicing at Omega Flowey as he let out another "OW". Frisk couldn't be too sure, but he had a feeling Omega Flowey had actually genuinely felt that one, and a renewed sense of confidence was rising in him. Even as the finger guns shot at him, Frisk wasn't scared.

But then the yellow soul came up and Frisk felt a cold icicle shoot into his heart. Now a REAL gun hovered in the air, a big red crosshairs aiming at him. He was blown back by an enormous bullet, and panted and heaved as some blood dribbled out of his mouth. Wiping it off his lips and ignoring the horrific pain that was stabbing into his body, he ran as fast as he could as the gun kept firing and firing.

He's using my mother's soul, Frisk kept thinking. He's using my mother's soul, he's USING MY MOTHER'S SOUL.

More crack of gunfire echoing through the darkness, his fists clenching tightly, almost enough to draw blood...

"Mom. HELP." Frisk grunted out, feeling a real sense of anger rise in him that he'd so rarely felt before.

And then...

Something else struck him. A gigantic, soothing four-leafed clover popped out of the gun, and Frisk was bathed in its tender light. The waves of healing clovers surged into him over and over as he heard her voice, and a smile came to his face.

"Oh, Frisk. I wish y'all had been with me when I was younger. Ya coulda solved my family's feud in half an hour, most like."

And then, there they all were. All of the souls hovering around him, their spectral forms visible and smiling at him as they spoke comfortingly, one by one.

"You were careful and cautious. You knew when the best course of action was to not do anything at all, but wait for others to understand. Wisdom came from PATIENCE." Hope spoke.

"You knew when to face danger head on. It's okay to be afraid. Facing up to what you're afraid of anyhow like you did? That shows real BRAVERY." Qiang said with a big ol' grin.

"Who are you in the dark? When nobody is watching and no one knows what you're doing? If you choose to do the right thing in the end, even when you don't have to, well...that's what it's all about. You showed INTEGRITY." Neil admitted.

"Even when you felt trapped and afraid, you kept moving forward. You understood the big picture and played it smart. You're a man after my own heart, Frisk. Cuz that shows PERSEVERANCE." Christa complimented him.

"It can be hard to be gentle and show mercy when almost everyone around you wants you dead. The merciful route is harder, but nothing worthwhile in life is easy. You knew that opening your heart and letting love in was the right choice. Your heart is filled with KINDNESS." Anthony said as he warmly smiled at Frisk.

"Frisk...you understand what's right and what's wrong better than I ever did. You saw things from all sides. You made the right choices that were fair to everyone. You treated everyone equally, and even when you had to fight, you knew to never take it to far. You understood that Vengeance...isn't JUSTICE." Bonnie whispered. "We couldn't be prouder of you. I couldn't be prouder of you."

"We believe in you." They all said at once. "You can do this."

"Come here." Frisk said, arms wide open. "I'm gonna hug the HELL outta you." He told them all as he felt their embrace all around him, and their soft, tender glow bathed over his form.

PATIENCE. BRAVERY. . KINDNESS. JUSTICE.

...DETERMINATION.

And with that, he knew. He KNEW he could win.

*Flowey's DEFENSE dropped to 0!

Frisk shot forward at Omega Flowey and he sliced with his weapon. With a SHA-SHUNK it slid down the face as a much louder, pained, agonizing yell echoed through the air, Omega Flowey howling in pain as Frisk leapt away, seeing the swarm of stars shooting towards him. Yet...they seemed to be going slower. No, it wasn't that.

HE was going faster. He was much more powerful, more faster, so much so that Omega Flowey's attacks now were piddling in comparison to him!

He easily ducked the stars, a broad smile on his face, and Frisk swung the knife again, leaping to the side as vines shot towards him. "Oooh. Too slow. Sorry, Flowey, but this time, things are gonna be different!" He called out.

Twisting his body to avoid another sweep of the vines, Frisk shot towards Flowey's arm, and sliced into it. Omega Flowey growled darkly, the bombs manifesting above Frisk as Frisk hopped, skipped and leaped about, the tender, tingling bathing light of band aids and eggs and stars occasionally swelling in his soul. He could feel it, the Souls were keeping him strong, reaching out from inside Omega Flowey, helping him succeed.

With a high leap, he avoided another strike from Flowey's vines, and soon he spun through the air, slicing across Flowey's face again. The screen-face let out horrified roars, as hordes of flies swept out combined with finger guns, Frisk cringing as one knocked him off his balance, sending him spiraling around before he felt a gigantic Thumbs Up Glove gently knock into him, his wounds healing as he twirled his knife.

No, he wasn't afraid. He could do this.

He sliced and cut and slashed, the screen face howling with every strike as he avoided the waves and waves of stars, ducked under the vines, twisted his body out of the way of the oncoming flies, dipped away to avoid the friendliness pellets, and bolted from the bombs and gigantic plant worms. Slowly but surely, he was winning. And he knew Omega Flowey knew it, the horrific being's screams becoming more and more distorted as Frisk kept doing worse and worse damage.

And then, with one final slice, all the attacks stopped. The television screen shuddered and quaked, and the face upon it howled in agony, Omega Flowey snarling in furious denial.

"No! NO! **This can't be happening!** " He screeched. "You... **YOU**..."

Frisk grinned. "It's over, Flowey."

And then it happened. Suddenly Frisk felt a dark chill stab its way into him as a shit-eating cartoony grin popped up on the screen, and he knew, he KNEW all of the damage had been undone, as gigantic yellow letters read out the words "FILE 3 LOADED."

 _"You IDIOT."_ Flowey remarked in his biggest "trolling" voice as Frisk gaped, mouth hanging open, eyes wide in surprise.

"But...but...oh, SONOFA-" Frisk groaned before suddenly the bisected mouth split open with a pulsating beam of bluish/white energy, surging into Frisk's form as he let out a scream. It was like being struck by a freight train and for a moment he thought he was going to die but then he was back again, and-

"FILE 3 LOADED."

Vines piercing through his chest, blood oozing out from his mouth, Omega Flowey's horrific white face on the screen laughing and laughing...

"FILE 3 LOADED."

The beam barreling into him once more.

"FILE 3 LOADED."

The vines shooting through his stomach.

"FILE 3 LOADED."

"FILE 3 LOADED."

"FILE 3 LOADED."

"FILE 3 LOADED."

Death after death again and again before finally Frisk, barely breathing, was plopped onto the inky blackness, Omega Flowey's grin the work of demons as he cackled insanely, sneering down at the tiny form of Frisk, "friendliness pellets" surrounding a trapped child who couldn't escape and was moments from death.

Deja Vu.

"Hee hee hee. Did you REALLY think...you could defeat ME?" Omega Flowey asked. "I'm Master of Time and Space now! Your desires don't override mine anymore! I control all the SAVE files for I? I am the GOD of this world. And YOU? You're HOPELESS." He intoned, that horrific leering human face staring down with sunken, abyssal eyes before fading into darkness. "Hopeless and alone..."

"I'm...n-not..." Frisk grunted out, managing to get to his feet. "And...n-not...scared of...you..." He managed to whimper. "Cuz...I've got my friends...behind me."

"GOLLY, that's right! Almost forgot." Omega Flowey remarked, his face showing mocking confusion on the screen. "But I got bad news for you. Your worthless friends can't do anything to help you now!"

Frisk bit his lip, Flowey's "normal" face appearing on the screen as he chuckled in a low, dangerous tone. "Go on. Cry for help. I dare you. Call out into the darkness!" He proclaimed, his visage morphing into a mockery of Toriel's face. "Oh Mommy, Daddy, SOMEBODY! HELP! It huuuuurts!"

A snarling sneer. "SEE WHAT GOOD IT DOES YOU." Flowey hissed out, his tone oddly... _personal_...as Frisk clenched his fists and concentrated.

"GUYS! HELP! PLEASE!" He cried out.

*You called for Help...

...

...

...

...but nobody came.

"Ohhh, that's a darn shame right there." Flowey said in a faux-apologetic tone. "Guess that means that nobody else..."

That same sadistic grin. _**"WiLl GeT tO sEe YoU dIe!"**_

And then, that horrific laughter rang through the air as the friendliness pellets surged out, and then slowly made their way towards Frisk to crush him, Frisk biting his lip, one hand clasped around the knife...the other around the locket as he waited.

And then...

WOOSH. That comforting, balmy glow of greenish healing magic bathing over him just as he was struck by "bullets".

...deja vu.

"Wh-what?' Omega Flowey's gigantic white face remarked, looking momentarily stunned. "H-how did you? Well I'll just boot up my save file-"

"LOAD FAILED."

Flowey couldn't believe it. Now visible beads of sweat were popping out on his face as Frisk suddenly realized that it wasn't over yet. "Wh-what the-where are my powers?!" Omega Flowey cried out. "What did you do?!"

"Oh, it's not what **I** did." Frisk said as a smile spread across his face.

And with that, there they were, hovering around Omega Flowey as more sweat popped out on his terrified face. "The souls...? What are they doing?"

He soon found out. Frisk was bathed over in rainbow light, Omega Flowey's body shaking and shuddering, being ripped open from the inside by the light that cascaded down onto Frisk. Frisk stepped back, eyes wide with fascination as Omega Flowey was assaulted by the power of the Souls as they spun around and around him, assaulting the horrific being over and over, the human face on the screen wailing in pure agony. **"NO! NOOOO! YOU CAN'T DO THAT! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO OBEY ME!"**

The world around Frisk began to get brighter and brighter and he closed his eyes, shielding himself, two voices screaming out in unison, one female, one male...

 **"STOP! STOP IT! STOOOOOOOOOP!"**

...

...

...

...a cold wind blew and now a cut-up, barely-standing, drooping-over Flowey laid before Frisk, as he thought he faintly saw the last remnants of something dark and red and bloody dissolving away around him. Frisk held the knife up slightly in one hand...before pocketing it, shaking his head back and forth as he looked down at Flowey. He knew things were fixed. It was over.

"...I just feel sorry for you." Frisk finally said. "For how smart you say you are, you don't understand right and wrong."

"What're you doing, human? Do you really think I've learned anything from this?" Flowey asked, glancing up at Frisk before bowing his head again. "... _no_."

Frisk just stared down at him, sighing as he folded his arms across his chest. "...killing people is wrong."

"Sparing me won't change anything. Killing me is the only way to end this." Flowey said, glancing back up at Frisk.

"No." Frisk said, shaking his head.

"If you let me live..." Flowey growled out, slowly raising his beaten, sliced and battered head up. "I'll just come back."

But Frisk just shook his head.

"I'll _kill_ you." Flowey said with a disgusting-looking smile.

But Frisk just shook his head.

"I'll kill everyone!" Flowey said, a faintly hysterical edge to his eyes.

But Frisk just shook his head.

 _"I'll kill everyone you love!"_ Flowey laughed, his voice high pitched and twisted, mouth agape with fangs...

...but Frisk...

Just shook his head.

"...why?" Flowey asked, his face faltering, becoming angry. " _WHY?_ Why are you being..."

And now his face began to break, and Frisk saw something on Flowey that he'd never, ever seen before.

Tears. Tears brimming in his tiny eyes, his voice becoming quieter, more pained.

"So NICE to me?"

"I'm sorry." Frisk said sadly, looking mournfully down at Flowey. "...you know...I dunno why you do the things you do. But I think maybe if I'd met you a bit earlier...we could have been friends." He murmured as Flowey's form began to shake, the tears coming freely to his eyes.

"I can't understand..."

"Flowey..." Frisk said, getting onto one knee, trying to reach out to comfort Flowey as the monster-like flower reeled back, tears trickling down his white cheeks.

"I can't understand!"

"...Flowey..." Frisk tried to say, Flowey shaking his head back and forth.

 _"I just...can't... understand..."_ Flowey whispered.

And with that, Flowey sank into the grass, leaving Frisk alone with the exit from the ruins. The half Asian, half American, brown-haired youth stood up, green eyes glancing at where Flowey had vanished, then at the barrier. He knew he could get through now. The fight had cleared the way somehow, the Souls had done their work, and now he could go back home.

He bit his lip though, feeling someone stepping away from him and he turned, faintly seeing a slightly creepy, slightly cracked...yet still tender smile gazing back at him.

 _ **"Yesterday, upon the stair, I met a man who wasn't there. He wasn't there again today,**_

 _ **I wish, I wish he'd go away..."**_ He sang out.

"I guess you can't come with?"

A sad shake of the head. Monsters couldn't pass through the barrier. This was Frisk's journey. Frisk's story. Well...him and...

A small smile.

"Why did you help me?" Frisk quietly inquired.

"I'm holding on to what I haven't got." The man who spoke in hands said, quietly nodding before he faded away, and Frisk turned, heading out the purple exit of the ruins...standing and gaping in shock at who was waiting outside.

...

...

...

...riiiiing! riiiiiing!

 **"heya. is anyone there? well, just calling to say that you made a snowman really, REALLY happy...guess I should say something else."**

Sans laid back in his chair at the palace, the warm glow of the judgment hall bathing over him as he held the phone to his "ear" and smiled as he closed his eyes.

 **"so...it's been a while. the queen returned and is now ruling over the underground. she enstated a new policy. all the humans who fall here will be treated not as enemies, but as friends!"** He commented. **"It's probably for the best anyway. the human souls the King gathered seem to have disappeared. so, uh, that plan ain't happening anytime soon. but even though people are heartbroken over the king and things are looking grim for freedom, the queen's trying her best not to let us give up hope. so, uh, hey, if we're not giving up down here...don't give up wherever you are, okay? Who knows how long it'll take...but we WILL get out of here."**

"SANS! WHO ARE YOU TALKING TO?" Papyrus's voice rang out as Sans chuckled and shrugged his shoulders.

 **"oh, nobody."** He said, his brother entering the room, Toriel down the hall writing a speech for tomorrow. It was a big day, a celebration of the day Monster civilization got founded below in the Underground, and she had a lot to plan. And many, MANY pies to bake. Luckily Muffet had agreed to assist.

And had promised to use a minimum of spiders.

"WHAT? NOBODY? CAN I TALK TO THEM TOO?" Papyrus cheerily asked, clasping his gloved hands together as Sans smiled and tossed the phone to Papyrus.

 **"here. knock yourself out."**

"WAIT A SECOND, I RECOGNIZE THIS NUMBER!" Papyrus realized aloud, grinning even more broadly than usual as he held the phone up. "ATTENTION, HUMAN! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM NOW CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD! IT'S EVERYTHING I EVER DREAMED OF! EXCEPT INSTEAD OF FIGHTING, WE JUST WATER FLOWERS. SO THAT'S EVER-SO-SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT."

Papyrus shrugged as well. "AND, WE'RE HELPING DR. ALPHYS WITH HER RESEARCH! SHE'S GONNA FIND A WAY TO GET US OUT OF HERE. UNDYNE IS HELPING HER TOO! THOUGH, TO BE HONEST, HER METHOD OF HELPING...SEEMS KIND OF..." Papyrus cringed. "EXPLOSION- INDUCING. BUT I THINK ALPHYS LIKES HAVING HER AROUND." He admitted before seeing an all-too familiar fish lady entering the hall. "UH OH!"

"HEY! What're you up to, punk?!" Undyne demanded, leaping on Papyrus and giving the phone a noogie, Papyrus cringing as she enthusiastically noogied it.

"PLEASE DON'T NOOGIE THE PHONE."

"HEY!" Undyne snapped. "Who's in charge here?!"

"ME." Papyrus remarked calmly as Undyne blinked, then chuckled.

"Oh, yeah, that's right!" She remarked, speaking into the phone as Papyrus handed it to her, the two putting it on "Speaker". "I quit my job as leader of the Royal Guard. Actually, since we won't be fighting anymore, the Royal Guard totally disbanded." Undyne confessed as she shrugged. "There's only one member now."

"BUT HE'S EXTREMELY GOOD!" Papyrus remarked as Undyne gave him a grin.

"Yeah he is, C'MERE!" She proclaimed, giving Papyrus a noogie as he cringed.

"AH! PLEASE DON'T NOOGIE THE SKELETON!"

"Anyways, now I'm working as Alphys's lab assistant." Undyne went on, walking over to the nearest stained glass window and putting one hand on her hips, smiling warmly. "We're gonna find a way outta this dump once and for all! And oh yeah, I'm a gym teacher at the queen's new school! Didja know I can bench press SEVEN CHILDREN!" She proclaimed, flexing her muscles and grinning broadly. "AWESOME, right? Heh...heh-heh...heh..."

But her chuckles slowly died off, her tone becoming sadder as she hung her head. "Hey, uh, listen, I'm...I'm so sorry about what happened with Asgore. I know you didn't wanna fight him, you were just doing what you had to. It's not your fault he-he..." She bit her lip, and shook her head slowly. "Ah, darn it. I miss the big guy." Undyne quietly sighed.

Shaking her head a bit, she tried to perk herself up. 'C'mon, Undyne! Snap outta it! I should tell you how Alphys is doing. Well, she's the same as ever, maybe a bit more...reclusive than normal." Undyne admitted, Sans quietly glancing in her direction, looking slightly bothered by something as Undyne scratched her head. "It seems like something's **really** bothering her. But she can get through it! I'm there supporting her, and what's what friends are for, right?"

Undyne hesitated then, and paused for what seemed to be a long time before speaking anew.

"Hey, uh...wherever you are? I hope it's better than here. It took a lot of sacrifice for you to get there." She quietly intoned. So, wherever you are... You have to try to be happy, okay!?

For our sakes! We'll feel better knowing our trouble was worth it." Undyne proudly insisted with a big grin. " We're all with you! Everyone is! Even the queen!" She then blinked, realizing something. "Oh! HEYYY! Wait a second, I almost forgot. TORIEL!" She called out, giving the phone back to Papyrus, heading down the hall slightly. "HEY, TORIEL! Do you wanna-"

A few minutes later, she came back sighing. "Ahh, she says she's busy." Undyne sighed as shrugged, Toriel heading off towards the memorial where the children's coffins were kept.

"IF SHE KNEW WHO WE WERE TALKING TO..." Papyrus chuckled as he handed the phone back to Sans.

 **"we would't get the phone back for at least a few hours."** Sans added with a big old smile.

"WE HAVE THE MERCY TO SPARE YOU FROM HER."

"But call back anytime, okay?" Undyne insisted. "She'd love to talk!"

 **"oh, woops. the thing's almost outta batteries. so hate to cut this short but...be seeing you, okay, buddy?"**

"BYE BYE FOR NOW!"

"See ya, punk!"

Unbeknownst to all of them, Toriel was indeed busy. It was not just the anniversary of the day their new civilization was founded, but the anniversary of the day Chara had come down to the Underground. And she wanted to get inspiration for her speech. She knew that her son had taken Chara's body out of the coffin it had been in. Knew the body wouldn't be there. But she wanted to look upon it and the others, to take their struggles into account as well for the speech. To find a way to inspire herself to say just the right thing that would honor them.

But as she stepped into the memorial, she gasped, the papers she was holding in one hand and the pen she had in the other falling to the ground. And Toriel stared in utter shock at the scene before her...

At the six other empty coffins.

 _ **I can't staaaay! Tomorrow I'll be on my waaaaay!**_

 _ **So don't expect to find me sleeping in my beeeeed...**_

 _ **Cuz when you wake up...**_

 _ **I won't-be-theeeeere!**_

 _ **I won't-be-theeeeeeere!**_

...

...

...

... "You'll have to load your SAVE file, and..." Flowey chuckled. "Well...in the meantime, why don't you go see Dr. Alphys? It seems like you could have been better friends. Who knows? Maybe she's got the key to your happiness...? See you soon."

And with that, the flower popped back into the inky blackness as the girl stretched her arms and stepped away from the screen, pausing the game for now before heading for the living room, getting out a Mountain Dew before returning to boot up "Skype" on the computer, a knowing smile on her face as her friend opened up a chat.

"You sure love fiddling around with the Undertale "Fun" files, huh?"

"Well, I like to experiment."

"I guess you must get a lot of teasing though."

"Cuz of my name?"

"Well, yeah. I mean you've got the same name as that creepy girl from the Genocide Route, the Fallen Child, the First Human. Ever since the game debuted, you must have a lot of people poking fun at you."

"Ah, they don't know any better. They're just dumb." Chara remarked with a small wink. " I can't stay on too long. I gotta get back to the game, finish it up for REAL."

"Okay. Then I guess I'll see you soon...Chara."

A big grin, and Chara turned Skype off, resuming the game as she sipped on her Mountain Dew and leaned back in her comfy black chair. It was time to go to work. After all...she was late for a very important date.

"Alphys, trust me when I say Undyne is gonna hug the HELL outta you." She remarked aloud with a little mischievous grin. "Right before you geeeeeeeeet **dunked** on."

 **Author's Note:**

 **I'm not entirely sure whether to end the story here, in truth. But WOW, I think I've given you all one hell of an exhaustive and explosive chapter. Boy, this took a lot out of me. Hours and hours of writing, and hopefully it's well worth it. Please, don't be afraid to leave a review or comment. It really makes my day to see the notifications in my mail's inbox. And I'll answer any questions you may have.**


	16. The Truth Revealed

Frisk had had no idea that this place was down here. And he'd had no idea what to expect when he'd found himself in the dark recesses of the "True" Laboratory beneath the normal place where Alphys worked. Yet here he was, inside of the faintly foggy lab, glancing about as he beheld the room before him.

There were patient chairs in a row in front of his eyes, a slight chill going through him as he approached, reaching out with a hand and cringing as it ran over the texture of the chair. Yeccch. It was stick in here for some reason. Moving onward, he approached an opened doorway, seeing a note on the ground.

"...huh? Someone dropped something in the sink?" Frisk mumbled. It was in scribbles that were barely legible, but the same handwriting as Alphys's note in the main laboratory. He was sure of that. It definitely hadn't been the same handwriting he'd seen on that OTHER note, the one from the trash that had stuck out, written in bold, confusing-at-first-to-understand letters which read...

"I KNOW WHAT YOU DID."

Frisk approached the sinks in the room where the patient chairs were, turning them on one after another. He couldn't reach his hand down into the drain, so his only thought was to flood the sinks and have whatever was inside just float up from the overstuffed-

But then upon turning on the third sink, something that wasn't water began to dribble out. Something white and sticky that filled the sink. For a moment it had a cute little round, cheery face...

And then it morphed into a monstrosity with a horrific laugh, large black eyes with pinprick white pupils gazing back, a tongue lagging out of one of many mouths, eternally crying and bleeding-black eyes on a whispy, curved tail like a scythe, this odd, strange, faintly melted specter of many faces looking back at him, three in a row all rising up from the sinks, mouths opening and closing. Frisk took a step back as a shudder ran through him. What...what WERE these things?

"Um...hello?" Frisk quietly said, holding a hand up.

The mouths on the...THINGS...all closed. Then they opened up all at once, and a very loud, grating sound echoed out, Frisk realizing that they were imitating an old, dial-up modem. He'd only heard it before in old internet sketches making fun of how slow the net had once been. How strange!

But that wasn't as strange as the little dots that popped up around him, suddenly blowing up, forming large, faintly skeletal faces that cheerily smirked up at him, Frisk sidestepping around them, maneuvering as best he could to get away before an idea hit him. His phone was humming, vibrating rapidly, and he could faintly swear he heard whispering. Thinking of the sound those...odd heads had made...he held it up.

The heads all stiffened as a singular voice that was both one and many drifted up from the receiver.

"Come join the fun."

"It's a real get together!"

"Become one of us! One of us!"

Frisk blinked. He...he KNEW that voice. He would hear it in his heart, gently guiding him, telling him what he needed to know when he checked out the monsters. And then he knew what these things were. Pieces. Pieces of what had once been a person. Memoryheads.

"Dr...Gaster?" He quietly inquired, realizing why the faces that popped up on the ground looked so familiar. "Is that you?"

"You'll be with us soon." Another Memoryhead intoned, as more heads sprang up around Frisk, knocking him back as they bulged and popped, Frisk shivering as the Memoryhead closest to him intoned in a dark voice.

"Lorem Ipsum Docet. Sorrow itself teaches."

"J-join the..."fun"?" Frisk whispered. "Wh-what do you mean? I mean...if I said "yes", then-"

"Then hold still." The first intoned, as a ball popped up right in front of Frisk, Frisk gasping as he reeled back, a leering face popping up where he'd been moments later.

"It'll aaaall be over soon." Another remarked, the Memoryheads advancing towards Frisk as he shook his head back and forth.

"N-No thank you." He insisted. "I think I don't wanna party with you today."

"...oh." The first Memoryhead murmured. "That's...a shame."

"Oh well." The second sighed.

"Goodbye..." The third murmured out.

And just like that, they all began to fade away, vanishing into the shadows as a glimmer was left behind in the leftmost sink, Frisk reaching inside. A red key sparkled as Frisk held it up, then returned to the room from before where the note had been, along with a slot that could easily have a key inserted into it. With a THWOOMP, in it went, and it glowed brightly in the slot, Frisk making his way back to the power room.

In the middle laid a doorway with four different lights. Three were now colorless and deactivated, but one, the red one, glowed brightly, just like the doorway to the right of it. Heading through it, Frisk let out a yawn as he approached a large series of beds in a gigantic hall, stretching his arms. He felt so darn tired...he hadn't had a good nap in ages, and he found himself climbing in, flopping onto the bed and sighing as he looked forward, seeing mirrors stretched across the walls on either side.

...and he saw a long, thin figure, a ghostly spectral being manifest behind him. It extended a long arm with a stubby "hand", reaching out. Closer...closer. Frisk shivered, fearful of moving, afraid this...this THING would do something nasty to him if he made sudden movements. But he didn't want to just lie there either, so he tensed slightly, waiting for just the right moment-

And then the hand lowered itself down towards the blanket at the bottom of the bed, drawing the pink comforter up to cover Frisk nicely before it gently patted the little one's head in a kindly fashion. _"My dear child."_ Frisk faintly heard it say before it vanished a few moments later, and Frisk cuddled up under the covers, relaxing and enjoying the gentle warmth of the bed...feeling safe.

...

...

...

...eventually, Frisk let out a yawn, exiting the bed and seeing something glittering under the covers of a bed not too far away. Walking towards the bed, he lifted the blanket up, seeing a yellow key glittering. Taking hold of it he made his way towards a doorway in the back of the room, following down a long hallway, more entries being displayed for him on grim computer screens that lined his way. Continuing down the path, Frisk finally stopped at another doorway, going inside...

...and there was a bathroom with a large purple shower curtain drawn. Something was behind it. Something long and thin which was wobbling back and forth, letting out a strange sound as it did so.

"Um...h-hello?" Frisk asked, nervously taking a cautious step forward. Then another and another, the thing's wobbling getting even faster and faster and faster, Frisk feeling his heart beginning to pump hard in his chest as he reached out with a hand, tugging the curtain back-

Nothing. Nothing but a green key. Wiping his brow, Frisk picked it up, looking briefly at the drain that remained...

...and then quickly exited the room, heading down the hall towards the west. To his surprise, he could see a large, skeletal machine plugged into the wall over an immense black abyss, gaping eyes staring endlessly and a familiar-looking golden glow blocking the path. But it somehow looked more...solid...than it should have. What was-

Then when he approached it and it rose up, its form bulging and shifting from golden yellow to white, he understood. It's face was a blobbish...THING with sharp fangs, little black blobs running down its back like a spine, a melted tail and muscular arms making Frisk briefly think this thing had been, at some point, one of Aaron's family? Another mer-creature? But then the eyes popped up from the top of its fanged head.

"Welcome to my special Hell." It intoned in a distinctly feminine voice, a singular pulsating eye glaring out at him as its form quivered. "Stay with me..."

It launched itself at Frisk, trying to clamp down on him with massive jaws, Frisk leaping back again and again, panting slightly before the thing began to quiver and shake, laughing in a twisted fashion as it held its hands up to its face. "Do you think I'm pretty?!" It asked in the high-pitched voice. "DO YOU THINK I'M PRETTY!? That's what they all say! **DO YOU THINK I'M PRETTY?!** "

Frisk looked at her. Her voice was faintly familiar. It almost sounded like...Shyren's. Was she-

An idea came to him. He began to hum Shryen's little ditty that she liked to sing. "Alll byyyyy myseeeeelf...don't wanna be...all by myyyyyseeeelf...anyyyymooooore..." Frisk softly sang, the creature's eyes blinking slightly, turning odd shades of blue and orange as it looked into Frisk's eyes.

"I've felt this before...felt...this..." It whispered, head rolling back, teeth on its blobbish head shaking, rings of enery in the many shades of orange and blue shooting around through the air, dancing about Frisk like fireflies as its voice got lower and sadder, Frisk holding up his arm and flexing it. "Yes, f-flexing...c-contest...f-flexing..."

"Yeah, f-flexing is good, right?" Frisk asked, nervously taking another step back, wisely deciding to give the thing some space as it wrapped its arms around itself.

"I've felt this warmth before. I...I want to be alone now." It murmured, Frisk wisely moving aside, far, far to the side as it slid off, head bowed and hung low. "Sister..." He heard it softly mutter before vanishing off down the hall, Frisk sadly watching the poor thing leave as he shook his head.

"Geez...poor thing." He murmured before going into the nearby doorway, and finding the videotapes within. One by one he popped the labeled tapes into the VHS player the television screen had, sitting down to watch. Or rather...HEAR. The lens cap kept getting left off. But he also kept seeing a picture being painted of Chara. And he understood as more of the tapes played out why Alphys hadn't wanted to inform Asgore of what was on these things.

"Why would anyone be so cruel to the Dreemurr family?" He murmured. "Why couldn't Chara just be happy with what she had?" Frisk asked aloud as he slowly left the room, shaking his head. "I just...can't understand." He mumbled, before heading towards the west room. Unfortunately, everything was all dark and shrouded in a fog, it was all so hard to see, and so oddly cold. Frisk shuddered as he wrapped his arms around himself, moving forward as a faint, man-shaped size materialized in the fog. "Wh-what? Hello?"

The figure held an arm up, and pointed, pointing down the hall, on the other end. Frisk blinked in surprise, glancing back at the way he'd come, then back at the figure-

Who was now gone.

Biting slightly into his lip, Frisk headed back down the hall, this time going all the way towards the east and towards a room filled with turned-off fans. It was slightly foggy in here too, but Frisk could see what was in here much more easily, including little flecks of white that drifted about like snow as he walked forward, towards a switch that read "If exhaust backed up, use switch" over a big red switch on the far end of the wall.

"So this'll get rid of the fog, I'll bet." Frisk reasoned, pressing the switch as the fog began to clear away...

And the little white specks formed into a large, bulging figure that was faintly doglike in form, with many, many legs, a gaping, huge circle of a maw for a face that dribbled out odd bluish goo, and smelled like wet dog. OHHH did it smell like wet dog.

The thing bounced towards him, slobber dribbling all over, letting out a faint, twisted growling roar.

"Uh...c'mere, puppy. That's a good pup." Frisk said, trying not to sound afraid as it stiffened a bit, then bounded towards him, the odd liquid pouring out of its strange orifice. The thing was shaking slightly, Frisk gently petting it's oddly soft body as it convulsed rapidly beneath his touch. For a few moments, it laid its body down on the floor of the lab, Frisk continuing to gently stroke it, but then it shot away, crawling on the walls, gasping and twitching even more wildly as it scurried about like a giant insect.

"Oh my." Frisk murmured, little flecks flying all around the room, Frisk getting an idea. "Uh...stick!" He proclaimed, holding up the gardening knife. "See this...stick? G-Go get the stick!" He suggested, tossing it into the corner of the room, the strange amalgamate thing rushing over to it, bringing it back to Frisk with a proud look on its lack of a face, Frisk gently petting its head.

"R-Right! Good doggy! VERY good doggy!"

And upon being hugged and petted even more...at last, it stopped, and the shadows that made up its underside seemed to show big, happy, smiling doggy faces, the thing nuzzling up against Frisk one more time before it cheerily trotted off, Frisk wiping his brow as he headed back towards the west room.

Sure enough, just like in the room where the "EnDOGeny" as he so delightfully referred to it inside his head had been, the fog here had dissipated too. Looking around the room, he ignored the fans, instead paying attention to the many, MANY refrigerators, nervously approaching them, opening them up.

Nothing...nothing...no, no-oh. There was collected samples of what appeared to be different colored liquid. And Frisk had a feeling he knew what it was.

"Determination"." He murmured to himself. "That's the stuff Alphys got out of the souls..."

He cringed. Had it hurt the souls to have their...stuff drained out? To have a needle stuck right into them? Had that been painful? He hoped not. Cringing a bit, he made his way deeper into the lab...

Before one of the "refrigerators suddenly bulged and twisted and morphed into a bird-like being that Frisk halted before, eyes wide. Oh no. He remembered his conversation with Mr. Drake at the MTT Resort, about how Snowdrake's mother had "fallen down"...

"Sno...wy..." Snowdrake's Mother whispered, her eyes now vegetables, her body barely holding together, snow dribbling out of her beak, it's central face holding her up almost like a stick figure as it quivered and shook. "Snowww...yyyyy..."

"Y-You're his mom, right?" Frisk asked. He had to admit. These things were far scarier to him than anything else he'd faced, with the exception of Omega Flowey. Because these things seemed to be falling apart, barely able to hold themselves together, and the smell was intense. Taking in a deep breath, Frisk smiled as best he could. "So you must love his jokes, right? Isn't he such a...COOL guy?"

He laughed and kept laughing. Laughing so hard, he couldn't stop. Tears ran down his face.

...no. No, it wasn't down HIS face.

"Ha...ha..." Snowy's mother whispered out, tilting her head back and forth, a faint whispery laugh coming out of her cracked beak. "I...remember."

"Yeah, and you know, if there's one thing your son taught me, it's that you need to take some time to yourself to just CHILL OUT." Frisk added, Snowy's mother laughing again as her smile got warmer and warmer still. "And! And he also taught me that an avalanche is SNOW place to be!"

"Thank...you." Ms. Drake murmured out, closing her "eyes", bowing her head as she slowly ambled off, going past Frisk as he watched her leave, a blue key left where she'd been. He had all the keys. Good. And he knew where all the keyholes were.

Well, almost all of them. There remained one hallway left. A long hallway with mirrors stretching out on one end, golden flowers on the other. Frisk walked further and further down the hall, sensing that something was watching him as he approached the doorway off in the distance, the television screens lighting up as he kept moving.

So Alphys had chosen something neither human nor monster as the vessel? A flower? A GOLDEN flower? What if-

And then it appeared, slimily crawling out of the mirror as Frisk turned, gasping in shock. A thing with a faintly bird-like head that had an eye that doubled as a mouth with long lashes. A thing with ornate wings and slim legs, a thing with a horned head that quivered and shook, speaking all at once with three different voices.

"ithelphurtsmesoImuchhavepleasebugshurtshelpinhelpmyheadpleasehurtshurtshuuuurts..."

"I..." Frisk murmured, the thing shivering and quaking, looking over Frisk. "Uh...h-hi?" Frisk murmured as the thing shook briefly before it manifested what appeared to be a humanoid creature with a faintly long muzzle and big black eyes. The bird hovered back, the Everyman just staring at Frisk with dead eyes that gazed endlessly before suddenly a swarm of butterflies descended down, covering the Everyman's face as it began to scream, falling to its knees, shaking madly, clutching its skull as Frisk heard the thing speak again.

"BUGSHELPINMEMYPLEASEHEAD! BUGSHELPINMEMYPLEASEHEEEEAAAAAD!"

Frisk shuddered. "That's just...EW, man! EW! What kinda gross, twisted guy makes an attack like that?!"

"RibbitnoregretsFinallysomeonegetsit."

Frisk stiffened. Wait. The thing, this...this Reaper Bird had spoken. It had spoken just like Astigmatism liked to. That little monster with the stubby arms and horns, a member of the Eyewalker family, that relentless bully. The one that appeared with...

Could they be?

Frisk had to test it out. Even as the Everyman walked towards him in large strides, the butterflies still munching on its skull as he took a few steps back, then fell to his knees. "Oh please, God. Have mercy on me. Protect me, please, God, please. Help me..." He whimpered, clasping his hands tightly as the Everyman halted right in front of him, the Reaper Bird's quivering form becoming more solid as it stared long and sadly at Frisk.

"...there's...stiiill...hope..." He heard it softly whisper, as Frisk rose up, realizing that he was getting through to this thing. Whatever it was, it was a combination of Final Froggit, Astigmatism and Whimsalot. Frisk bowed its head and then spoke, pointing at the butterflies on Everyman's head.

"Are you a man dreaming you're a butterfly? Or are you a butterfly dreaming you're a man?" He asked.

A thoughtful croak came out of the Reaper Bird's voice as it nodded, the Everyman's head fixing itself, then spawning MULTIPLE heads that popped off, all nodding at once in perfect conjunction with the Reaper Bird as it spoke, with now three plain, obvious voices clear as day and easy to understand.

"Ribbit-ribbit! I have so much to understand still."

"Courage, please. There's still hope."

"That's right. Someone finally gets it."

Frisk nodded, the thing walking off down the hall, head swaying left and right as Frisk made his way towards a doorway off at the end of the hall, going inside, finding the last keyslot. Putting in the last key, Frisk headed back towards the door. It was time for him to get inside the power core of the True Lab, and soon he was pushing the doors open, going through an elevator with purple walls and soon approaching a machine off in the distance with a heart insignia on it. Strangely, the television screens on the walls weren't on. He didn't know why. Why were they turned off?

Ah well. He approached the machine and the big red button beneath, pressing it as the machine began to gently hum to life.

And then he heard them. The Memoryheads. So many of them, all moving forward, the other Amalgamates slinking after them, going closer.

"I'mlovingit!"

"But it didn't work."

"FAILURE."

"Nope."

"Don't worry about it."

Frisk's back was stuck against the machine, breath caught in his throat, eyes wide as they got closer and closer, the smell getting stronger and stronger.

"Absorbed… _absorbed_ …" The Memoryheads whispered out, mouths opening and closing, Frisk gulping a bit before suddenly a voice rang out. An all-too familiar high-pitched, slightly nasally voice.

"HEY! STOP! I've got some food for you right here." She said, holding up a large bag of dog food, shaking it back and forth. "And I added bacon bits to them too. Come back to the kitchen, okay?" She said, the Amalgamates all eagerly filing out of the doorway as Frisk sighed in relief, Alphys putting the dog food down and sighing. "Sorry about that. The Amalgamates kinda get sassy when they don't get fed on time. I THINK they smelled the potato chips you had and-"

"Oh." Frisk pulled out the bag of potato chips, looking down at the poorly-named bag, cringing. "Woops."

"Anyway, the power went out in here and I'd been trying to get it up again. But looks like you took care of that, so, thanks!" Alphys said as she clasped her hands together. "This was probably just a big ol' inconvenience for you." She remarked with an apologetic blush on her cheek. "But I appreciate that you came here to back me up. As I said in my note, I was kinda afraid I might not come back. N-Not because of these guys or anything!" She insisted, waving her hands in the air.

"Then why?"

"I was worried I might be too afraid to tell the truth about what happened. Or that I might run away or do something…" Alphys's voice dropped slightly as her tone got quivering and afraid. " _C-Cowardly…_ "

"… _oh_." Frisk murmured, realizing what Alphys was saying. "I'm so sorry, Alphys." He said gently, walking towards her, patting her shoulder. "So are these things…are they what I think they are?"

"Yes. As you might have figured out, Asgore wanted me to find out the nature of Souls. I extracted Determination from the Human Souls we had and injected them into different monsters who were close to death. It was a kind of last resort, and it almost looked like it worked for a little while…" Alphys murmured. "But human bodies are far physically stronger than monsters. They can handle Determination. Monsters really can't. And before long, everyone I injected Determination into had turned into…"

She gulped. "THOSE."

"Geez." Frisk cringed. "That's…wow. I…gee…"

"Seeing them like that, I knew that I couldn't tell their families." Alphys quietly sighed. "I couldn't tell anyone about it. No matter how much everyone was asking me." She murmured, Frisk gently hugging her. "I was getting so low. I almost wanted to end it all. I hated myself, knowing that everything I had done so far had been such a horrific failure. But now, thanks to people like you, I've changed my mind."

She gently returned the embrace. "I'm going to tell everyone the truth. I'm going to face the future."

"You'd better go bring them home." Frisk agreed, Alphys heading out the doorway as he smiled, seeing the Memoryheads walk towards him, or rather, bounce towards him. He rubbed the top of their heads, and they sadly smiled back.

"So lonely." It murmured.

"You don't have to be alone anymore. I promise I'll remember you."

With that, the Memoryheads began to quiver and quake, and Frisk saw tears streaming down its many eyes as it gently exited the room, Frisk faintly hearing soft crying behind him. He turned around…but nobody came.

Blinking a bit, he headed back towards the elevator he'd come through…the video screens turning on. Showing off a big, cheery red smiley face.

"What the?" Frisk murmured as he read over the screens. "For the vessel she chose a golden flower, and…it vanished?"

He blinked. Something gained the will to live. Determination, was that it? A golden flo-

FLOWEY, he realized to himself as he entered the elevator and then, a moment later, both doors closed, and his phone rang. He picked it up, a voice that he hadn't heard before, yet somehow sounded familiar echoed out from the receiver.

"Chara are you there? It's been a long time, hasn't it? But you've done well. Thanks to you, everything has fallen into place. Chara? See you soon!"

And with that, the elevator suddenly shot up, Frisk gasping as it stopped at a floor all-too-familiar to him…he was right outside the palace, large, thick green vines slamming the elevator door shut as he exited it.

"…Flowey." Frisk murmured. "…what are you up to?" He wondered aloud as he headed towards the palace, shaking his head. It was time to meet with Mr. Asgore again.

Hopefully…this time would be different.

…

…

…

…Frisk cleared his throat, staring at the deep-voiced, cloaked being before him. "Ah-hem? Sir?"

"Just a moment!" Asgore cheerily remarked whilst birds chirped softly through the air. "I've almost finished watering these flowers!" He announced. "...aaaaand here we are!" He said, turning around, his face warm and soft as he looked at Frisk. "Howdy! However can I help-"

And then he dropped the watering can as it plopped onto the grass below, his mouth agape as Frisk nervously waved.

"Hi, Mr. Asgore. Or should I say...King Fluffybuns?" Frisk asked as a small smile spread across Asgore's face and he tried not to chuckle, holding a hand to his face.

"Heh-heh. So you, uh...you know about that. Um...hello..." Asgore mumbled. "I so badly wish to ask you if you'd like a cup of tea, but...well, to be honest, it's gone cold." He sighed as he gestured back at a teacup that was lying on a small table nearby alongside a little teakettle which was shaped like a fish. The King of Monster ssighed as he walked over to a nearby window and stared out it for what seemed to be a long time before turning back to Frisk.

"Sure is one nice day out, isn't it? Birds are singing, flowers are blooming..."

"Perfect weather for a game of catch!" Frisk finished with a chuckle. He had a good feeling about this time. "I know what you're going to say, Asgore. We've done this once before."

"...did I... **kill** you?" Asgore quietly inquired as Frisk, seeing the pained expression creeping onto the goat-like monster's face shook his head.

"Oh no, no! And I didn't kill you either."

"So was it a "tie"?" Asgore inquired, looking intrigued. "That's never been done before. But I suppose we'll have to do it again, won't we?"

"I think we might have to." Frisk said, glancing about. "I'll let you get set up in the next room." He told the king with a nod. "I've gotta go make a call to some friends." The brow-haired Asian American child explained to the King of Monsters as the bearded man nodded.

"I see. Anything you want to do is important enough. Even something as small as reading a book, or taking a walk..." Asgore murmured out, eyes gazing far off into the distance, his tone indicating he very clearly did NOT want to fight as he quietly nodded. "Please. Take your time." The King of Monsters requested, Asgore heading off towards the room where the barrier was as Frisk stayed behind and whipped out his cell phone.

He called and he called and he called...

...but surprisingly...no one came.

There before him stretched out a near-endless abyss that stretched on and on and on, ending at a faint, barely-visible "door", waves of energy coalescing towards it over and over to form it. It was as if a never-ending hallway was stretching out before Frisk from some kind of twisted dream, and Asgore's voice was soft and barely audible as he slightly turned his head to look over at Frisk.

"This is the barrier. This is what keeps us all trapped Underground. If...if by chance you have any unfinished business..." Asgore quietly commented. "Please do what you must."

"I'm ready, sir." Frisk said with a gentle nod. "And for what it's worth, I don't hate you for what you did. You're just trying to help the people you love."

"I…see." Asgore murmured. "You're…you're very kind." He admitted, turning around. "It was nice to meet you, human." He offered, as he clapped his hands, and seven different containers popped up, all but one containing a floating soul of a different color. Green, yellow, orange, purple, blue and aquamarine.

 _"A strange light fills the room. Twilight is shining through the barrier. It seems your journey is finally over."_

"I'm filled with **DETERMINATION**." Frisk whispered to himself, Asgore looking down at the ground, sighing sadly.

"Goodbye." He remarked.

But then, an instant later, a familiar POOF echoed through the air as a familiar pinkish/purple fireball manifested not too far from Asgore's cloaked form as he stared in surprise. Then, like Flowey so many days ago, he went flying with a WOOOOO-OOOP through the air, tumbling around as Toriel stepped forth to kneel down by Frisk, ruffling his hair.

"What a miserable creature, tormenting such a poor, innocent youth." She remarked. "You needn't be afraid anymore, child. It's me, Toriel, your friend and guardian. I simply HAD to come out of the Ruins. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I couldn't let you make such a treacherous journey alone, for it would burden you with a horrible choice. A choice of "Kill Asgore" or "Never Return Home". And…I couldn't let you make that choice. You deserve better. And…well, so does Asgore. As terrible a being as he's become, he deserves Mercy too."

"Tori!" Asgore said happily, rising up to his feet as he beamed with delight. "You came back!" He laughed, clasping his hands together as she gave him a frosty look.

 **"Don't you "Tori" me, Dreemurr."** She snapped, Asgore flinching as she lit into him in a disappointed and VERY pointed tone. "I expected better of you, Asgore. But you've turned into a pathetic  whelp. If you really wanted to free our kind, you could have just crossed the barrier after you got ONE human soul, claimed six souls on the other side, then come back and freed us that way. At least then it would have been done quickly. Instead you waited here, meekly HOPING another human never fell down." Toriel growled.

"I'd still be killing humans." Asgore reasoned nervously.

"That too is terrible, but worse still, all the ones that have fallen down here were children!" Toriel reasoned angrily. "Are you going to argue killing a child is more moral than killing an adult?!"

"I…I know." Asgore said softly. "You're right. You're always right, Tori. I really am a miserable creature." He quietly said, hanging his head. "I just wanted everyone to have hope, but I didn't want to really hut anyone. So I was trapped between what I wanted and what my Kingdom wanted. Could we at least be friends again?" He asked hopefully, Toriel pinching the space between her eyes.

"SIGH. No, Asgore!" She groaned, Asgore smacking his face with his hands and cringing, looking almost on the verge of tears as Frisk cringed.

"Ouch, Ms. Toriel. That's kinda mea-"

"NGNAAAAAH! Okay, nobody fight!" A loud, boisterous voice rang out. "Everyone's gonna make nice, alright Asgore?! You and the human-" Undyne proclaimed as she burst into the room, spear held high before she caught sight of Toriel, staring stupidly. "Are…are gonna…gonna…" She trailed off. "…um…hi?"

"Why, hello! Are you the human's friend? I'm Toriel." Toriel said, shaking Undyne's hand as Undyne dissipated the spear. "How nice to meet you!"

"Nice to meet you too." Undyne remarked, going over to Asgore. "Hey, is that your ex, big guy? Tough break. Must be hard seeing her."

"You've NO idea." Asgore sighed sadly as he shook his bearded head back and forth.

"H-Hey! Nobody hurt each other!" Alphys yelled out, rushing into the room, panting and heaving. She had very clearly run all the way here from the lab and was utterly out of breath as Frisk gently helped her off the floor. "Oh, th-thank you Frisk, that's-"

Then she saw Toriel and Asgore. "Oh. There's TWO of them?" She whispered to Frisk, Undyne smiling at the sight of Alphys.

"Hello! I'm Toriel. Nice to meet you." Toriel remarked, Alphys smiling back nervously before heading over to Undyne. "How nice to see so many new friends."

Speaking OF friends, good old Papyrus had shown up, larger than life, beaming proudly as he put his hands on his hips, standing tall in the barrier room as everyone looked at him. "HEY! NOBODY FIGHT ANYONE! IF ANYONE TRIES TO, THEN I'LL BE FORCED TO…ASK UNDYNE FOR HELP!" Papyrus proclaimed before taking notice of Toriel. "OH! WHY, HELLO, YOUR MAJESTY!"

"Hello." Toriel said with a giggle. "My, what an impressive set of pipes you have."

"MY CHORDS OF STEEL ARE WELL-REVERED!" Papyrus remarked with a grin before looking from Toriel to Asgore, a brief hint of confusion coming across his face before turning to Frisk. "SAY, FRISK…DID ASGORE SHAVE? AND **CLONE** HIMSELF?"

"Oh, not exactly." Frisk laughed before he turned his head, and there, standing to the side, was Sans, who had his hands in his blue jacket pockets and was smiling warmly at them all.

 **"hey guys. what's up?"** He asked them, Toriel's eyes going wide.

"Oh! That voice!" She remarked, going over to Sans and holding out a hand as he shook it. "Hello there! I believe we may know each other?" She told him. "I'm Toriel. It's very nice to meet you!"

 **"aw, hey, I DO recognize your voice. the name's Sans. and, uh, same."** Sans the Skeleton said with a big, warm grin and a wink, Asgore groaning. Ugh. Was his wife already being lured away by another man?

"So wait. If you're-ahh! This must be your brother you've told me so much about! Papyrus." Toriel realized, looking back at the tall skeleton as Papyrus blushed slightly. "How nice to finally meet you!" She said, holding out ahand and eagerly shaking his hand.

"WOWIE! I CAN'T BELIEVE ASGORE'S CLONE KNOWS WHO I AM! BEST DAY EVER." Papyrus cheerily said as a mischievous grin came to Toriel's face. A grin Frisk knew all too well.

"Say, Papyrus. Do you know what a skeleton tiles his roof with?" Toriel asked.

"UM…SNOW-PROOF ROOF TILES?" Papyrus asked before suddenly realizing-

"Nope! A skeleton tiles his roof with…SHIN-Gles!" Toriel proclaimed, Undyne groaning, Alphys sniggering, Asgore chuckling as Sans beamed in delight, Frisk suppressed a chuckle and Papyrus looked like he'd been whacked in the face before getting an annoyed look on his skeletal features.

"CHANGED MY MIND! WORST. DAY. EVER!" He groaned, Undyne patting Asogre's back.

"Hey, Asgore, it'll be okay. There's plenty of fish in the sea. And I would know." Undyne remarked with a small chuckle at this.

"She's right. Sometimes you gotta stop chasing after fuzzy, muscular bosses and just get to know a nice fish!" Alphys reasoned, Undyne blushing a bit at this as Alphys blushed even MORE deeply. "Uh…um…it's a metaphor." She said, everyone looking at her as Undyne warmly smiled.

"Well, I think it's a good one."

"Oh. My. GOD." Mettaton's voice rang out as they turned to see him flexing his legs in the air, standing tall and proud as he put a robotic hand through his majestic black locks, purple pink and black body doing dramatic poses. "Quit teasing and just SMOOCH already! The audience is dyyyying for some romantic action!"

"HEY, SHUT UP!" Undyne snapped, shaking her fist threateningly at the sexy beast that was Mettaton, frowning. "The nerve of that guy. What a jerk. Am I right or what, Alphys?" Undyne snorted, seeing Alphys blushing even MORE deeply and a funny look coming over her face. "…Alphys?"

"No. He's right. _LET'S DO IT!_ " Alphys proclaimed, Undyne now grinning broadly, the two quaking with anticipation.

"Well…um, I…I guess if you want to…don't hold anything back!"

They leaned in. Closer…closer…

"WAIT! Not in front of the child!" Toriel proclaimed, shooting between the two as Mettaton sighed sadly and headed back down the hall. Alas. It seemed it was not to be.

"Sorry. Good point." Alphys remarked nervously as everyone smiled down over at Frisk.

"My child, it would appear you have to stay here for a while. But I think, given the amazing friends you've made, that you'll be fine." Toriel reasoned, Frisk smiling as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Yeah...I think I will." He decided. For once, it seemed like things had worked out. And it was about time.

"Wait, uh...Papyrus? You're the one who called everyone but Ms. Toriel to come here, myself included. Sure, I got here before you..." Alphys scratched her head. "How did you know to call everyone and where Asgore and the human would be?"

"WELL, LET'S JUST SAY A LITTLE BIRDIE TOLD ME. OR RATHER...A LITTLE FLOWER."

Frisk gasped. Asgore blinked in surprise, Alphys turning pale as Sans's smile suddenly faded, Undyne glancing at Papryus in confusion. "A...A FLOWER?!" She spoke up.

"Don't tell me-" Frisk murmured, suddenly turning around, looking back at where the human souls...

HAD been. But now, instead, immense vines, thorny and pulsating and thick, wrapped around all of them save for Frisk, who was knocked back as Flowey rose up, sneering down at him as his friends were lifted high in the air.

"YOU IDIOTS." Flowey cackled. "While you were all havin' your little pow-wow, holding hands and singing "Kumbaya", I absorbed all the human souls! And now, guess what? All your friend's souls are gonna be mine too!" He told the human.

An afterimage of the humans manifested around Flowey, all held up by spectral vines, the thorns digging into their poor, defenseless flesh as they howled and screamed, teeth grit, clearly in agony. Hope, Qiang, Neil, Christa, Anthony, Bonnie, all of them were trapped just like Asgore, Undyne, Toriel, Sans, Alphys and Papyrus.

"And you know what the best part of all of this is?" Flowey asked, bouncing his head back and forth as he looked the human squarely in the eye, his smile the work of demons. "IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT. You made them love you. Care about you. All that time you spent, solving their problems, getting to know them, it led them right here. Right to me. Hee-hee-hee."

"Oh, I see how it is!" Qiang's voice rang out as they turned to look at her spirit, which was glaring at Sans.

"Huh? What're you doing?" Flowey remarked.

"Oh, Bi Zui!" Qiang snapped. "Put a cork in it and SEK SI. Which, since you're a flower, you should be used to eating. Lemme see if I got this right, nǐ fāpàng tā mā de!" She snapped at Sans. "So when you're facing a girl who's barely taller than you, you can't kick my ass hard enough! But this yúchǔn de zá cǎo? Suddenly it's "ohhh, nooo, heeeeelp, I'm caught"! You lazybones!"

 **"you know what? you're right. you're gonna reap the whirlwind."** Sans said, everyone holding in their breath as his eyes turned into dark sockets and...

...nothing happened.

 **"...what the?"** Sans blinked, his pupils returning to normal. **"oh you gotta be shittin' me! c'mon! FIRE! FIRE!"** He yelled out, an air of panic entering his words. "what the hell is going on?" He said, cringing as he began to cough and hack. **"feels like knives are sticking into my soul!"**

"My influence over the souls means I have immense power, skeleton. And that means I have the power to dampen all YOU have. Try to do anything, you'll just hurt yourself." Flowey laughed. "How dumb do you think I am? Did you think I wouldn't try to HOLD BACK your powers? I know all about your stupid Gaster Blasters that your dear brother left behind for you and Papyrus."

Papyrus stiffened, and suddenly, Alphys and Sans could see a tear trickling down his cheek. "...wh...what..." He murmured. "Why...why am I...crying..." He whispered.

"Why are you even still DOING this?!" Frisk demanded to know. "I thought you'd learned something, Flowey. I thought you understood what you had done was wrong. I thought you could be better! I thought..." Frisk trailed off. "...I thought you'd changed."

"What? Why am I still DOING this?" Flowey remarked. "Don't you get it?" He asked, his tone getting hurt, angry, furious. "This is all just a GAME. All of it. You've been a piece in it this entire time, just like they have. And you're nearing your happy ending. But if you leave the underground or stay here, if you are "satisfied", then you win. And you won't wanna play with me anymore! The game'll be over! And I'll have nothing." Flowey whispered. "Nothing and nobody. What would I do then?!" He asked, his voice becoming hysterical.

"What're you talking about?" Frisk asked.

"You know what I'm talking about, Chara." Flowey said, Asgore gasping in surprise, Toriel "eeping" as Undyne frowned darkly. "You think I can't see through you? You did all this to make up for how awful you were. You wanted to see what it was all like. And now that you've gotten them their happy ending, you're satsified. That's IT for you. But no. NO, it won't be. This game isn't gonna end. I won't let it. I'll hold victory in front of you and tear it away from you at the last minute, OVER AND OVER AND OVER!" He screeched.

"For how powerful you are, you don't understand anything. You won't win, Flowey. You lost to me before and you'll lose again." Frisk said softly, shaking his head back and forth. "Don't you understand that?"

"You're awfully confident. Tell you what." Flowey remarked with a wink. "If you beat me, I'll give you your "happy ending". I'll free eeeeeveryone from the Underground, free your friends, and everyone will be shiny happy people. But that ain't gonna happen. I'll keep you hear no matter what!"

THWOOM. And like that, Frisk found himself rooted to the spot by the vines which had wrapped around his feet, seeing his body surrounded by "friendliness pellets" on all sides as Flowey's demonic face leered back at him.

"EVEN IF I HAVE TO KILL YOU A MILLION TIMES!" He howled.

Again and again and again, the bullets struck into Frisk, knocking him about like a rag doll, yet he remained rooted in place against his will, panting and heaving, blood dribbling all over his body and out his mouth from his wounds, struggling not to pass out. He gasped as he clutched at his body, quaking, form wracked with pain as Flowey's psychotic screaming laugh echoed through the air, a final, horrific ring of bullets closing in...

And then the bullets were driven back, as a gentle ring of flames surrounded Frisk's form, knocking them away, Flowey blinking in surprise, his face stunned as Toriel's pained voice drifted up from the vines that wrapped around her.

"I don't...care if it hurts me. I...believe in you, my child." She whispered out. "Do not be afraid. No matter what happens...we will always be there to protect you!"

"GRRR!" Flowey launched a pillar of bullets towards Frisk, but then a gigantic glowing faintly blue spear manifested, sending them scattering away. Another pillar shot at Frisk, but then a gigantic bone halted this, Papyrus and Undyne smiling as best they could.

"YOU CAN WIN, HUMAN! JUST DO WHAT I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WOULD DO...BELIEVE IN YOU!"

"Human, if you got past me, well, you can do anything!" Undyne insisted. "So don't you worry, cuz we're with you all the way! 100 PERCENT! MAXIMUM POWER!"

"GRRRRRR! You're getting me angry now!" Flowey snarled, trying to launch more pillars of bullets at Frisk as Frisk clenched his fists tightly, looking proudly at Flowey, Toriel's gentle healing magic washing over him as bit by bit his wounds began to heal, Sans giving him a wink.

 **"c'mon. you ain't beaten this guy yet? this weirdo weed ain't got nothin' on you."** He told Frisk.

"Yeah, we'll keep you safe!" Alphys insisted as a sparkling ring of lightning bolts shot forth, destroying one pillar as a wave of fireballs blasted the other one aside. "Sure statistically,it's mathetmatically impossible for you to beat him right now! But I've got faith in you!"

"Human, please. For the future of humans and monsters, I beg of you. Don't give up!" Asgore insisted. "Stay determined!"

"You are REALLY! PISSING! ME! OFF!" Flowey roared out, snarling with his fanged mouth before Mettaton's voice rang out.

"Darling, don't be afraid! We're all here for you, and to thank you for being a frieeeeend!" He sang out, as an enormous horde of monsters now poured out from behind Mettaton, all of them cheering and yelling, Flowey's face wracked with fear as Frisk looked back, smiling as the vines around his feet drifted off. Frisk grinned in delight, seeing the immense crowd of monsters that were there as his friends all smiled at the sight. "Good thing about being a television star is it's easy to get the word out." Mettaton chuckled.

"Time to put this stupid flower...ON ICE." Snowdrake proclaimed.

"La la la la! I shall sing a victory tune!" Shyren cried joyfully.

"We're with you too." Vulkin cheerily intoned.

"C'mon, you got this!" Monster Kid insisted, bouncing cheerily up and down as waves of healing magic bathed over Frisk, and he felt his wounds completely healing, the cheers of the monsters growing louder.

"You can do it!" Royal Guard 01 insisted.

"...yes. You can do it." 02 added with a firm, solemn nod.

"You've GOT to win, deary!" Muffet begged. "Such a sweet thing like you is our only hope! For spiders...AND monsters!"

"Ribbit-ribbit. I'm certain you can win." A froggit remarked.

"RUFF...him up good!" Doggo wisecracked slightly. "Ohh, Sans really is a bad influence."

 _"Please."_ Frisk heard that same voice in his heart intone, as he heard Dr. Gaster mournfully speaking to him. _"My brothers believe in you. You've helped me feel complete. Complete our tale. Give us a happy ending. I want them to be happy."_

"Everyone...th-thank you." Frisk said, wiping a tear from his eye. "I...I can't believe you all came here."

"No. NO, NO!" Flowey gasped out, shaking his head back and forth, his face panicked and terrified. "Unbelievable! THis can't be happening! You all came here!? ALL of you!? REALLY?! You...YOU..."

And then Frisk suddenly realized something was very, VERY wrong, as a twisted, sick, foul, diseased smile spread across Flowey's face.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE ALL. SO. STUPID." He whispered, as more and more and more vines shot forth, ensnaring everyone, wrapping around their bodies as he began to howl with laughter, his body glowing fiercely as Frisk cringed, being blown onto his back.

 ** _"ALL OF YOUR SOULS ARE MIIIIIINE!"_**

Pure white. And then...

...

...

...

...a goat-like monster in a long-sleeved, green and yellow shirt stood there, his back turned as he flexed his fingers, shaking his shoulders a bit before laughing, as he spoke in a voice Frisk now recognized. It no longer had the twisted quality that Flowey's voice had had, just like that call in the elevator, just like the voice on the videos. No, now he could hear what "Flowey" really sounded like.

"FINALLY. I was soooo tired of being a flower." The monster child said as it turned around, showing off a sweet little face and a pair of delightful blue eyes that were so much like his parent's. "Howdy!"

"No...way..." Frisk murmured. It couldn't be, could it? But it was the only thing that made sense.

"Chara, are you there? It's me, your best friend."

And with that, he transformed, how a mighty horned being in a dark black robe, the Delta Rune symbol on his chest with horned pauldrons, black veins running down from his eyes, and a well-built body as his fanged grin looked the human over, a heart locket wrapped around his neck so much like the one Frisk had.

"ASRIEL DREEMURR." Frisk whispered.

"The Legendary Being made of every Soul in the Underground. The ABSOLUTE GOD OF HYPERDEATH!" Asriel proclaimed dramatically, holding his fists up in the air and grinning in delight. "What do you think, Chara? It's a twist on the old classic look my family rocks. What can I say? I've always taken everything mom and dad did and made it cool. I made the magic cool. I made the costume cool."

"You...you absorbed EVERYONE in the Underground?" Frisk asked, mouth agape at the inky blackness that surrounded him, taking a nervous step back. "EVERYONE?!"

"I told you. I'm not gonna end this game." Asriel said. "Now come on." He insisted, giving Frisk a big, dark grin. "Make the first move. **Let's play!** "

* * *

 **Author's Note: I HATE ending the chapter here. But it's already getting close to 9,000 words, and I've still got the ending to write. Now that the fight is set up though, it shouldn't be too hard. I hope you all have been enjoying this story so far! And remember, don't be afraid to leave a review or a comment at all. I'll never get better without feedback.**


	17. A Golden Dawn

All they knew was absolute silence for what seemed to be a long, long time. There was nothing but the darkness and the deep that engulfed them, muffling their own thoughts as they just stood there, unable to move. They couldn't feel anything. Hear anything. Think anything. All was just silence, shadows and dust, as the stood stock still as statues, unable to escape from the abyssal darkness that permeated their very being. This was what happened when your soul was lost.

And then a short, tubby skeleton spoke up, voice drifting through the dark. **"i...i don't...feel so good..."** He mumbled. **"...why am I...why am I so cold? where am I? it's so...so lonely here..."**

"I...CANNOT FEEL MYSELF." Papyrus's voice rang out. "I'M...I'm scared, Sans." He murmured. "Sans, where are we?"

 **"...can't...can't remember where we are."**

"I remember a flower..." Toriel's voice softly intoned, her voice drifting up through the dark expanse as Sans struggled to see something, ANYTHING. "But then it is all one big grey to black blur. I cannot see anything around here."

"Are we dead? We may be dead." Asgore's voice murmured. "It feels like we're in Hell. Is this what Hell is like?"

"Maybe." Undyne's voice quietly muttered out, her tone subdued and quiet. "...I always imagined it'd be like this. Nothing but the dark and the cold, cut off from everyone."

"Someone like me deserves to be here." Asgore sighed. "...maybe we all deserve it. We all have blood on our hands in different ways. We made awful mistakes."

"I often wonder what would have happened had I just put my foot down. Said "no" more strongly with the other children. Or had I just destroyed the entrance to the Ruins sooner, maybe...maybe none of this would have happened." Toriel quietly murmured. "But I was too weak in my own way."

 **"my brother doesn't DESERVE to be in Hell."** Sans said, his tone angry, furious. **"he's been nothin' but nice to everyone, he deserves better than whatever this place is."**

"I feel like worms are crawling on my skin." Alphys's voice whispered. "Like they're wriggling all over me, trying to crawl up and into my eye sockets to pop them out."

"Is this what death is like?" Mettaton's voice asked. "I wonder...I wonder what I used to look like before I was a ghost. Our whole family used to be "alive". I wonder why our forms changed upon death to ghosts, turning into monsters of a kind. we're all living souls now...it's so strange. Shouldn't I remember what my life was like before I died?"

"I remember a little bit about your family. At least, your father." Asgore's voice rang out. "He..." A chuckle. "He used to be a court magician in the human world. He actually helped teach humans spells at one point. He was very, VERY humble."

"Ahh, clearly a man after my own heart." Mettaton sighed wistfully.

"He unfortunately died in an explosion. A wrong pronounciation of a complex spell. I was amazed he became a ghost, it was quite a surprise. The Prince of the Humans thought it was fascinating. Actually, now that I think of it..."

"The human, Chara, and...and Frisk. They both had that same smile and the cute little button nose, didn't they?" Toriel remembered aloud as a soft warmth began to spread over Toriel. "Yes, you remember, right?"

"Yes, he did. The Prince always had that adorable little face..." Asgore sighed wistfully as he felt a gentle tingling rising in his heart, old memories bathing over him. "He was the one who spoke up against wiping us all out, he convinced the human army not to go along with it, and the royal magicians to cast the barrier spell instead of finishing us off when we surrendered. He was awfully generous considering I impaled his father through the neck with my trident."

 **"guess that's one way to make sure he-"**

"DON'T YOU DARE SAY IT-"

 **"got your point."**

"SAAAAANS!"

"It was my fault."

Sans stiffened. His body shivered as Papyrus suddenly let out a gasp and Alphys almost shrieked, Asgore slowly turning as he and the others saw, they could now SEE each other. The warmth of memories and happier times had allowed the dark around them to fade more and more, and now a sad voice drifted out, faintly ethereal, quiet and sad...

Dr. WingDinG Aster, aka Gaster, stood there in his long black coat, a silver undershirt over his fairly thin chest, black cracks running o'er his face. "If the humans hadn't found out that I'd been doing those tests, if they hadn't seen me gaining those SOULS, then-"

"My father made you do the tests, it wasn't all-" Asgore began to say as Gaster shook his head.

"At first, yes, it WAS his idea. But then it...it started getting to me. Getting that first human soul inside me made me..." Gaster bit his bony lack of lip. "...it felt erotic. Exotic. Exhilerating. I wanted more. But then when I started seeing them, staring at me...accusing me with their eyes, I wanted to stop, but...but the old King wanted to know what would happen if I had more. I should have said no from the start. Known when to stop. Just LIED. But I was weak, and I was foolish, and then when your father gained Human Souls of his own on the field of battle, it..."

"It was horrible. I was amazed the prince and the magicians finally managed to overcome him." Asgore admitted. "Maybe I should have spoken up as well. Father might have listened to me."

"We've all made mistakes." Muffet's voice rang out as they turned, seeing her sitting on midair, arms folded in her lap and head bowed. "...I was very, very bad."

"Oh, NOW you feel bad!" Undyne snarled, Alphys nervously gulping.

"Undyne-"

The blue-scaled fish woman stomped across the inky blackness, grabbing hold of Muffet by her reddish/purple attire and lifting her up, one pulsing, furious yellow and black-pupiled eye gazing intently into Muffet's five. "I still ain't forgiven you for POISONING that kid. What you are is a coward! At least I faced the children I fought directly! I didn't pretend to be nice before I murdered them! I was honest about things!"

"That, to me, is worse." Muffet said coldly back. "At least I tried to be gentle about it. They didn't suffer. Spearing a child through the chest would be agony for them."

"Everyone here should be so much more excellent to each other." Another voice rang out, a bunny in a large suit of armor standing by a dragon as they both nodded. "We all gotta be excellent to each other, dudes. We're, like, all we got now. Cuz otherwise, it's just us and the dark, man." Royal Guard 01 insisted.

"...he's right." Royal Guard 02 sighed. "...we can't fight each other. We...we need to learn to love."

"Good on you, man. I know its, like, TOTALLY hard for you to be so open 'n emotional and stuff." Royal Guard 01 offered as he patted his dearly beloved on the back, Undyne sighing as she put Muffet down, more and more monsters now visible in the darkness, all standing around, gazing at each other.

"Fighting with each other will not solve anything. You need to learn to express yourself more...heartfeltly." A faintly draconic, black-haired artist remarked, the tubby guy holding up a notebook and showing off a little heart. "Look, I made this for Mr. Frisk. It's a personification of his very soul!"

 **"...it's not bad."** Sans said with a smile as Hope stepped a little bit past him and nodded.

"Yeah, not bad at all."

 **"yeah, you're pretty talen-WOAH!"** Sans almost jumped out of his parka as the monsters all stared at the sight of Hope, the young African American girl smiling back at them as she held her hands behind her back. "...so THAT'S what it's like."

"How long were you there?" Asgore inquired, surprised.

"I've always been by Sans's side. This is just the first time you all can see me. We're all inside of a much more powerful being right now. All the barriers between the physical and spiritual are gone. Well...not ALL the Barriers, but...you get the idea." Hope said with a shrug. "We'll just have to wait and see what happens."

"And it could be a while." Anthony's voice rang out as he walked past Muffet and over to Qiang as she walked past Sans, holding up one hand as she concentrated, Anthony cracking some eggs over a frying pan as he began to cook over Qiang's fiery first. "Scrambled eggs anyone?"

"Yes, we could be a while, so we'd best just get comfortable, I think." Neil admitted as he patted Undyne on the back, Christa holding up her notebook to Gaster, showing off a little picture she'd drawn of him as he warmly smiled at this, with Bonnie walking over to Sans, looking deep into his eyes.

 **"um...kid, I know your son hasn't exactly had the easiest time-"** He began to say.

"No, no." She shook her head. "I know what you're a-gonna say. And the thing is, y'all don't gotta." The green-haired teenager closed her eyes, taking off the cowboy hat she wore as she placed it over her heart, sighing slightly. "Y'all done pretty well taking care of my kid, all things considered."

"And I know you want to apologize for what you did." Anthony told Muffet. "The same way Asgore wants to apologize for the order he gave."

"But the truth is, you've all been apologizing in one way or another for years now. And even if you hadn't, that's okay." Neil said. "We've had a lot of time to think. And we want you to understand some things."

"When I first died, I could feel myself in that jar, and I was...scared." Hope murmured, her black messy-haired head bowed as she gripped it in her hands. "I was scared and trapped, and I felt nothing but terrified. I banged around and I screamed and I sobbed, and I could see Sans staring at me for hours on end in the lab, just...looking at me, and every hour that passed, the more I could see him dying inside. And then...finally...finally he turned away and I heard his heart say it. I heard him say he was sorry. And with that, I was suddenly there, right next to him."

She raised her head up, looking at Sans as he softly stared back at her. "I couldn't move about much. I couldn't go wherever you weren't. Couldn't really feel a lot of anything. But I got to be patient, and with that came wisdom. Spirituality. Acceptance. Tolerance. You waited a long, long time for the words "I'm sorry" to come out of your mouth. But the truth is that when I saw you trying to choke back your tears for the first time..."

She put a hand on his shoulder. "I forgave you."

"We all forgave you. All of you." Qiang admitted. "I was kinda a little racist towards you guys. Sure, your species is scary. Maybe more scary and dangerous in some ways than humans. But we humans can be scary too. We humans can do bad stuff too." She said as she hugged Sans.

"We have to hold ourselves accountable for what we did. All of us. And I think you all really started to do that the more humans came in, and especially when Frisk came down." Neil told them as he gave a nod of his head. "Frisk sure is unique, isn't he? He's really gone the extra mile for all of you."

"I feel so guilty over that." Undyne murmured. "I mean, he went on dates with us!"

"Danced with us." Muffet chuckled.

"TRIED MY PASTA!" Papyrus proclaimed.

"Did flexing contests with me." Aaron said as he showed off his biceps and grinned.

"Was an AMAZING partner on the stage!" Mettaton admitted. "...wow. You're right. He jumped through hoop after hoop to befriend us and all the while we were tossing bombs or lasers or fireballs at him. No one that young should have to do so much just to keep someone from not killing them..." He sighed. "I was so selfish. All that just to be even more famous when I didn't need to be."

"And he probably might have even willingly given his soul up to Asgore if we just talked to him and asked nicely." Undyne added. "Frisk's just that generous."

"I think it runs in the family." Anthony said as he gave Bonnie a wink, the red-haired human finishing up the eggs as Muffet tried some of them, the spider-lady warmly smiling back as he nodded at her. "Ehhh? Ehhhh? Good stuff, huh?"

"It's not spiders, but...it's very good."

"I AM JUST HAPPY TO SEE YOU AGAIN, OLDER BROTHER." Papyrus said as he approached Gaster, Alphys and Sans walking over to the tall skeleton as he embraced each of them, Christa sighing sadly.

"I don't know if this'll last though." She quietly informed them, adjusting her glasses as she bit into her lip and hung her messy, brown-haired head. "We can only see him because pretty much all the souls in the Underground are here. Heck, I think even JERRY'S here."

"Oh, c'mon. Why does everyone hate me?!" Jerry grumbled.

"Well, you look funny, you smell worse, and you're always complaining. You're like an Internet troll." the dinosaur-esque scientist Alphys admitted with a shrug as Jerry frowned darkly, the three-legged monster "harrumphing" as he folded his arms over his oblong, big-headed body.

"I DON'T WANT TO FORGET YOU AGAIN!" Papyrus insisted. "I DON'T WANT TO FORGET YOU LEFT. I DON'T WANT TO...to let go..." Papyrus murmured, tears beginning to brim in his eyes as Sans hugged his brother tightly as well, Gaster quietly nodding back.

"we just got you back. i don't wanna lose you again. it ain't right."

"Sometimes there are just things you can't control." Gaster said, looking up at Anthony, right into his eyes. "Sometimes there's just nothing anyone can do because it's gone too far, and poor choices can't always be undone. Sometimes it's just too late. But that doesn't mean you don't try when you can to make things right. And it doesn't mean you don't remember the good."

"You're really gonna be gone again when...whenever what's happening to us is gone?" Alphys asked.

"I'll be where I'm needed." Gaster said. "I was always watching. Even if you...even if you didn't realize it. And even if your mind doesn't remember, I could see your hearts did. That..."

Suddenly the black-robed scientist found himself crying. "That made me so happy. Knowing that a part of you still remembered. It was such a small thing, but it meant everything to me. And knowing that he won't forget-"

He stiffened. "...wait, knowing...knowing he won't...who..." He blinked a bit. "Frisk, the...the child's name is Frisk, isn't it?"

"Yes, it's..." Toriel blinked slightly, holding a hand up to her head. "...isn't it? Their name is...wait. Who were we talking about...?"

"I feel odd..." Alphys murmured, her body beginning to get an odd tingling that rose all over her, her vision turning faintly white, as if a hazy, pixelated cloud was descending upon her. "I...why's it so hard to remember-wait, what? What was I...huh...?"

And then, one by one, all of the monsters felt it. A hazy pixelization engulfed them, as only the human souls remained untouched, watching as the monsters got pulled one at a time, manifesting...before the sight of a very beaten-up, worn-down, bleeding-badly, barely-alive Frisk who, even after all this...was still holding on. Every single monster now hovered before Frisk, the being that was manipulating them forcing the monsters to use their attacks, their memories of Frisk buried and almost forgotten.

...but "almost" only counts in horseshoes.

Toriel's face turned warm as a gentle hug embraced her, Asgore looking hopeful as Frisk took his giant hands. Papyrus beaming in delight as the despair that had filled Sans's voice faded away, and true hope found its way into his eyes. Undyne's glare turned into a smile as Frisk gave her a flex, Mettaton giving the child a sexy wink as Alphys blushed deeply, Frisk patting her on the back. Muffet gave a delightful bow as Frisk held out some gold from his pocket, and Gaster smiled, a single tear trickling down his cheek as Frisk's promise he wouldn't be forgotten echoed in Gaster's heart.

The Froggits understood they had more to learn. The Whimsy family's heart was opened to mercy. The Royal Guards stayed their hand as love swelled in their hearts. Aaron and Shyren looked in delight upon the child who'd been so eager to indulge in their hobbies, with Gerson "The Hammer" gently being helped up by Frisk. "I'm a mite too old fer this..." He apologized. Though that was nothing compared to the apology of So Sorry, who would NOT stop shaking Frisk's hand, feeling awful about drawing gigantic cannons to fire at the kid.

Monster after monster, all of them found their hearts and souls speaking out, realizing how much the child before them had sacrificed. How much he'd done for all of them.

But there was one more soul to save. One final Soul. And Frisk called out...

Inside of Asriel, the Six Souls smiled as they gently put a hand on him, on his true self.

"Come on. Step into the light." Bonnie Hatfield-McCoy said with a grin.

...

...

...

...the Barrier was down. The Coffins were open.

And Frisk knew where they'd gone. He made his way through the Underground anew, taking one last, final trek, deciding to make his way all back to where he'd first landed all those days ago. And though it took a while...

Eventually, there he was again, in a dark expanse, the light from the cave entrance above casting soft rays on the bed of golden flowers below. And Asriel Dreemur was sitting in the bed of flowers, with the six children sitting nearby.

"...hey." Frisk called out, Asriel turning around as he smiled warmly back, giving a gentle nod of his head as Frisk walked over to him and the Six Children. "I had a feeling you guys were here."

"We wanted to say goodbye." Hope admitted.

"Yeah. It was weird being solid again. But also good, like...like taking off a scab, y'know?" Qiang said. "It's that good kind of hurt."

"I feel kind of chilly. First thing I'm going to do when I get home is change into something other than this tutu." Neil decided with a nod. "I mean, I've been wearing it for decades now. Time for a change." He laughed, flipping his blonde hair back.

"And I can't wait to see what fabulous new inventions people have made up since I was gone!" Christa admitted to Frisk. "Bonnie didn't exactly keep up with current events, so she's not been that helpful."

"I don't even know how to work a DVR right." Bonnie sighed apologetically as Anthony shrugged.

"That's okay. Not everyone's good at everything. But it's good to see you came here, Frisk." Anthony said with a big smile. "Asriel's been talking to us for a while now, and we've been telling him about what life on the surface was like when we were growing up. And he's told us a bit about Chara."

"Frisk...you know the legend, right? Whoever climbs the mountain doesn't come back." Asriel murmured. "I had wondered if maybe you climbed it because...well...maybe if it was the same reason Chara had. Why DID you climb it?"

"Didn't Bonnie tell you?" Frisk asked, Bonnie shaking her head. "She's my mom."

Asriel gaped, looking from her to him. "...r-really? But she's so YOUNG. How?"

"I got a gift of my own. My body was like a living SAVE, that's how ol' skele-butt put it." Bonnie said with a chuckle. "I was stuck at this age."

"...um...about that "not having kids" crack I made-" Asriel nervously intoned, biting into his lip, head slightly hung as Bonnie patted his back.

"Aw, ain't a problem. Y'all did some weird stuff as a flower, but it's alright now. It all worked out in the end." She reasoned.

"I know why Chara climbed the mountain. She _hated_ humanity." Anthony sighed.

Asriel shook his head back and forth. "I never really understood why. They never talked about it."

"They had...issues." Bonnie muttered as the other kids, Frisk and Asriel looked at her, Bonnie taking her hat off. "Her parents weren't really paying attention to them the way they should have. She needed to get help. But she never asked, and no one else asked, and it just got worse and worse."

"I wish she'd just learned to be happy with us." Asriel admitted softly. "There were times she seemed so...so nice and so overjoyed at just being a part of our lives down here. We'd spend hours playing and it was like she was in paradise. But..." He sighed. "I guess she just couldn't let go of her life before...let go of the hate."

"She needed therapy is what she needed." Neil muttered. "She actually tried to...tried to get me to go genocidal on this place. She appeared to me." He quietly murmrued out as Frisk gasped in surprise, Asriel whipping his head in Neil's direction. "Appeared to me because I could RESET, and I could go back in time the more powerful I got. But when I realized how low they'd sunk and how terrible they'd become, I decided to undo what I did...and take my own life. People have to hold themselves responsible for what they do. You have to chose to do the right thing. Even if it means it hurts you."

"Chara really wasn't the greatest person." Asriel sighed. "But you, Frisk, you're...you're the kind of friend I wish I always had. I'm not sure why I thought you were Chara. I guess I was projecting. But sometimes it was like I could see Chara on her best days in your face..." He said as Frisk gently held the white-furred little guy's hand, smiling warmly back.

"Say, um...Asriel, your, uh...your earlier form..." Christa asked, taking out her notepad and holding up a VERY impressive rendition of Asriel's robed, horned form from when he'd fought against Frisk, before his "final transformation". "Is that what you always imagined you'd look like when you grew up?"

"Kinda. I almost wanted to look like that when I crossed the barrier with Chara, but I went for a younger look. Being like that woulda been too scary, but...well, people still freaked out." Asriel murmured. "And when they DID see us and attacked, Chara kinda wanted me to wipe them out. But I held back."

"That shows a lot of decency." Neil complimented.

"Yeah, you showed more humanity than the human did." Qiang remarked with a nod. "You should be proud of yourself."

"I still felt sick. I blamed myself for what happened. I adopted that awful view of "Kill or be killed"." Asriel quietly informed them as he shook his head back and forth. "I'm glad I made that choice now, though. In the end, everything worked out. But...you know, Frisk, not everyone's like me. There's...well, a lot of Floweys in the world. So don't kill and don't BE killed, okay?" He asked Frisk, who nodded back. "And Anthony, I..." He bit his lip. "I see a lot of Chara in you. The good of her. I think it would have been nice if I'd gotten to know you more."

"We've got time." Anthony said.

"Not really. I don't got much of a life left." Asriel chuckled wryly. "I'll turn back into a flower soon. I'll stop being "me". So when you see me again, Frisk, it might be best not to think of me as Asriel. I want you to think of me as someone who was your friend for a little while."

"I wish I could do more for you." Frisk admitted softly.

"Frisk, c'mon. Be with your friends. Don't you have anything better to do?" Asriel asked before Frisk reached into his pocket, and brought out something that made Asriel's jaw drop a little.

"Oh MY." Anthony murmured. "I recognize THAT!"

"Butterscotch-Cinnamon pie?" Asriel asked, Frisk giving him the pie piece and smiling warmly.

"Thank goodness for Dimensional Boxes. It's still warm and everything. I WAS saving it for if I had to fight your dad, but...well..." Frisk grinned. "I think you deserve it more than me."

Asriel began to tear up as he took the piece of pie in his hands, Anthony pulling out a fork from his apron, giving it to Asriel as he began happily munching away, the tears trickling down his cheeks as Frisk gently rested his head on Asriel's shoulder, and they all just sat there, bathed in the glow of the sun from far above.

Eventually though, Frisk was left holding a small, golden flower who had his head bowed as he snoozed, Christa holding up a pot and giving a knowing nod. She'd come prepared. Putting Flowey in the pot, the children all headed off...save for Bonnie and Frisk, as Frisk embraced his mother, realizing something.

She was crying. And as he looked up at her, he understood why. Her form was becoming transparent as she held him tightly to her. "Wh...what?"

"I had a feeling this might happen." Bonnie Hatfield-McCoy sighed. "I think I've been living on borrowed time for a loooong...looooong while. And it's finally my time. I think dying and just a Soul has taken away the ability I had, and my body's giving out. God's a-callin' me home."

"But...but I just got you back." Frisk whispered, looking up with eyes filled with horror and sorrow as he shook his head. "Time got STOLEN from us. It's not fair! NONE of it's fair! You can't go just when I finally found you! It's not right any more than Asriel has to...it just...I..." He stammered, the tears unable to stop coming as Bonnie gently patted him on the head, then rested a hand on his necklace.

"I know. It isn't always fair. But that's a good thing too. Because it means people don't deserve the bad things that happen to them. And they deserve the good things they get." Bonnie admitted. "I was given one of the best things I could have ever gotten when I had you. I had more time than I really deserved. And I know you're going to be amazing."

"It's just..." Frisk murmured. "...even when you weren't right with me, I could still feel like you were there. And you...you've been with me for so long."

Bonnie knelt down, hugging Frisk even more tightly as she snuggled up into his chest...

 _"I always will be."_

And with that, she was gone, Frisk gently clasping a lucky four-leaf clover necklace in his hand as soft golden light danced around him. His head hung for a long, long time as he quietly cried, letting it all out. He had earned this. He'd been through so, so much. More than any child had the right to be put through.

But he was going to be alright. Despite everything, he was going to be alright.

He had faith in what the future held. And he had his friends.

That would be all he needed.

Unbeknownst to him, someone watching from afar had quietly gotten up from their computer screen, sighing a little as they exited the game, and went to the "Steam" options for the game...

Time to really end things. A couple clicks...

And then, within a few moments, the game was uninstalled.

She breathed a sigh of relief, and then Chara Vardalos made her way out of her bedroom, heading out towards the forest, and the mountain far, far off in the distance. A mountain so ironically named.

She'd done her part. Made up for what she did.

And she hoped they could forgive her now. She wasn't sure if she could forgive herself, know seeing everything that she'd done.

Still, she thought to herself...it hadn't been all bad. No. It had been pretty damn good at times.

And that was enough to make her smile.

The cave entrance opened wide. She saw the root in front of her and stepped forward, arms outstretched. The wind rushed around her.

And she wondered what waited for her as she sank into the darkness below.

Hopefully it would be something good.

See you someday soon...

...Asriel.

...

...

...

..."They're in here."

Mr and Mrs. Chan could barely keep their eyes open. It was a struggle to breathe as they laid in the hospital beds, faint blue curtains to their right as soft sunbeams filtered in just like the air filtered into their breathing apparatuses. The walls and floors were clean as a whistle as they heard the nurse's voice drift through the doorway.

"I have to say, we had our doubts, but with the blood test, it's..." The nurse hesitated. "It's good we can do them so QUICKLY now. You can't imagine how much worse it would have been only a few years ago."

 **"so the kid can go in?"**

"...yes, they may go in. But you might want to stay back. They'd be very...SURPRISED to see you, to say the least."

 **"i understand. seeing me would shake them...to the bone. they'd jump right outta their skin."**

"REALLY? _Bi Zui!_ My mom and dad are at their deathbeds and you're cracking jokes?! _Qu ni de!_ "

Mr. Chan stiffened up. His wife let out a gasp. That voice. THAT VOICE. It couldn't be. It simply couldn't. There was no way that-

But there she was. Slowly entering the room, bandanna on her head, her black gi the same as they remembered it...Qiang Chan was their at their beds, gently reaching out and taking their hands.

"I made it back." She whispered, her parents finding themselves unable to control the flow of tears. "I came back, Mom. I came back, Dad. I'm so glad I made it back in time."

"You're...alive?" Mr. Chan whispered. "How? We thought...after all this time and...and you're so YOUNG still..."

"Magic." Qiang said with a smile. "The Barrier's down now. The monsters are going to play nice. Isn't that RIGHT, Mr. Sans?"

The Chans saw a bony figure step slightly into the room as the nurse gave him a "HEY", the tubby skeleton waving. **"heya. the name's Sans the Skeleton. Your daughter really kicked my ass up and down the Underground a lot."**

Some might have freaked out. But this just made Mr. Chan laugh, and Ms. Chan breathed a sigh of relief, the two just so glad to have their daughter back on the surface.

"And I'm going to seek out other kids like me. Other humans who might be able to do magic. Just in case, you know?" Qiang admitted. "Time to bring back some of the old ways for a new generation. And...and make you proud."

Her parents lifted themselves up, and Qiang felt their shaky...yet warm embrace.

"We couldn't BE prouder of you. Having you as our daughter was the greatest gift of all."

Sans had promised himself he wouldn't cry. But he thought it was best to leave them then. They didn't have a lot of time left, and it was best they caught up quickly. But he didn't teleport away. Instead, he just sat outside and waited. He knew the kid was going to need another hug soon enough, just like Neil had needed when HE'D had to say goodbye to his father. And they both needed a gentle hand to take them home to the orphanage.

...

...

...

...not to far FROM said orphanage, Hope gently put a hand on Anthony's shoulder as he sat down in front of the graves, sitting on his knees.

"This is so weird." He muttered as he stared at the grave of his parents. "I...I don't know what to say. I guess...I just..."

He bit his lip. Years of being a soul had made him SLIGHTLY used to death.

...slightly. But not really.

"I just wish I could **hold** you guys again. And tell you it wasn't really your fault. It wasn't really anyone's fault, or...I guess it was everyone and no one's fault, I suppose." The red-haired child sighed. "I believe you can hear me." He said, putting a hand on the shared gravestone. "And I want you to know that...I never stopped thinking about you. And you shouldn't blame yourselves." He whispered out, the green-eyed boy surpressing tears as best he could. "And that...you were good parents. I believe that. You were flawed but you were good parents. And you taught me how to love. That's the greatest thing you could have given to me. The greatest thing anyone can learn is to love and be loved back." He said, his voice beginning to crack.

"It's okay. It's okay." Hope said, gently leaning down and hugging him, letting him cry into her. It would be a long, long time before Anthony would move on. But she was patient. And she'd be there to help them. To help them all.

Christa, meanwhile, had it slightly luckier. Her parents weren't quite gone yet, and there was much she had to talk to them about. More importantly...much that they had to talk to the government about. To the media. To the people.

"I've composed an exhaustive and extensive list of information on monsters." Christa Lewis explained as she clicked the remote, an immense display screen floating next to her as she stood in front of the many cameras snapping pictures in the White House, her grizzled-haired, very thin parents standing nearby. Christa adjusted her glasses as Alphys nodded back at her, standing next to her as people in the crowds nearby murmured and whispered in a mixture of excitement, concern and nervousness. "All can perform magic to a degree. All have wide varieties of abilities. All can be hurt, even killed, as long as someone has killing intent. And because of this, they need to very much be considered, due to their low numbers, as a protected class of citizen. They're an endangered sentient species, and in desperate need of our help."

"Ma'am, Ms. Christa, with all due respect, what's to stop a monster like that one next to you from walking into a bank vault?" One of the reporters asked as Alphys bit her lip.

"Good point. What's to stop you from walking into one though?"

"But I can't do magic."

" _ **That**_...we're going to be working on." Christa said with a smile. "We've learned that the presence of monsters brings out a surpressed ability that humans once had more free access to a long time ago. The ability of magic. My friends are going to travel the world to seek out those with these abilities, and I encourage ALL who have these unique talents to present yourselves to Mount Ebott's Science Facility. We have a website set up for you to contact us, a mail address, and we'll be accepting any who wish to apply to either develop their skills, or learn what has been forgotten."

"We're going to try and work together with humans so things will be on an even keel." Alphys admitted as she nodded her head. "It'll be really fascinating to see what you all have to offer. I've heard so much about your race. And, um...this is kinda awkward, but...I wanted to ask. What's this I heard about...robot suits?"

"Oh, yes, we made the first mech suit for deep space use just five years ago." Mr. Lewis admitted as he cleared his throat before Christa handed him the remote, the picture changing from specifications on monsters to what was unmistakably a gigantic helmeted, laser-sword-carrying mech suit for deep space operations. With a VERY familiar color scheme.

 **"ANIME IS REAAAAAL!"** Undyne's voice rang out through the cosmos as she watched from the hotel room before leaping out the window with the exuberance of Papyrus, landing in the pool outside as she leapt in and out of it like a dolphin, Papyrus shrugging before he leapt in as well.

The lifeguard simply threw up his hands, people caaarefully easing away from the pool and just sitting on the edge, deciding to just enjoy the sight, none of them aware of the invisible form that calmly watched from the side, leaning against the wall as he looked over Papyrus, a blue-jacketed skeleton standing nearby.

"AhHh. IsN't OuR bRoThEr CoOl?"

Sans smiled. **"the coolest."**

"And of course, our ambassador to your species will have MUCH more to say in their address to Congress." Alphys admitted, Frisk looking himself over in the mirror before lifting up the cell phone he had, and making a call.

"Hello!" Toriel's voice rang back. "I'm so glad to hear from you, Frisk. I finally got my phone back from that silly little dog."

"Well, that's good. Uh, Asgore and I will be making our address to Congress. You sure I can win them over?" Frisk asked nervously. "I mean...I REALLY wanna do well." He quietly remarked. "I'm kinda scared. A lot of people are much more open to this than I thought they'd be, but there's still a lot of people who are scared of monsters. Not even years of seeing them all cute and cuddly on Saturday Morning Cartoons can make EVERYONE feel more at ease around them."

"Well, those nice folks at Disney can only do so much. But trust me, if you introduce Asgore the way I said...you'll win them over. Especially with Mettaton spreading it online. I was amazed Youtube picked him up so swiftly. " Toriel said with a knowing smile on the other end of the line, Frisk bidding her goodbye as he looked up into the mirror and chuckled.

"Okay. You can do this." He said, heading down the hall, Mettaton following after, taking broad steps in his fancy human-esque body as Asgore joined along.

"You ready, darling?" He asked with a wink. "And you, your majesty?"

"It's time for us to become the future of humans and monsters." King Asgore said. "Frisk, I have faith you'll do well."

"And I have faith you'll do GOOD." Frisk said back as they entered the doorway, the President stepping aside as Frisk took hold of the podium, many, many faces staring back, C-Span cameras watching closely as Frisk cleared his throat, Mettaton standing nearby, live-broadcasting for Youtube through his eyes as Asgore stood not too far behind the young man.

"Ah-hem. Today is a brand new day in America. A new day for the world, in fact. I've so much to say, and so much to show you. A whole new world has opened up for all of us. But before I begin, there's someone close to my heart I'd like to introduce to you. King Asgore Dreemurr, King of the Monsters, has something to say to you all. Please, welcome him warmly."

And then, seemingly unaware the microphone was still on...

"Your turn, ol' Fluffybuns."

Snickers. Chuckles. A few chortles as King Asgore approached the podium, giant hands raised up high as all turned quiet. You could hear a pin drop as he tapped the microphone, then cleared his throat.

"Good evening, people of America. Good evening, people of the world. I..."

A big grin.

"KING FLUFFYBUNS..."

And raucous laughter filled the room, a smile spreading on Frisk's face. He had a good feeling about this. He really did.

But he had to finish this up soon. There was a flower he had to care for who was waiting back at home. A flower with a particular craving for butterscotch-cinnamon pie, though they'd never own up to liking Frisk's cooking.

And sure enough, the next day Frisk was sitting at a table across from them, munching on his own piece of butterscotch-cinnamon pie.

"Well?" He asked his guest.

"...it's okay." Flowey said, looking across the table at Frisk. "So, um...the other children will be visiting soon?"

"EVERYONE. Are you liking Washington DC?"

"It's okay too."

A bite of his lip.

"...I feel like...I've lost something." Flowey admitted. "...not just what I thought I'd lost, but...for some reason, I feel like I've lost someone very, very important who was always there. And now they're not. And I feel like I WANT to cry, but...I can't." He mumbled.

"The fact you WANT to says a lot." Frisk told him. "Did you ever see Beauty and the Beast?"

"Of course."

"The Beast started out unpleasant and mean but then the more he TRIED to be nice and good, the more he BECAME good. What started out as playing pretend and just practicing became real." Frisk said as he munched on his pie, waving a fork at Flowey. "Doing a prayer? For my faith, that's playing pretend too, because when we say "Our father", we're kinda dressing up like Christ. We're practicing being like him so we can become more like him. The more we practice and the more we try, the closer we get to the real thing."

"So you think people can fake it 'til they make it?" Flowey asked. "...I don't know if I believe that."

"That's okay." Frisk said. "You seem happier now than you were before. And that's enough for me. You might not have a Soul, but I think, deep down, you still have a heart."

Flowey smiled a little at that. In truth, he kind of believed that too. And he could feel his heart warm as the doorway opened up, and everyone from Alphys to Hope to Neil to Papyrus to Undyne came in to greet their dear friend and him. It was amazing that they'd found time to get together.

But sure enough, when Frisk had called for them to come over...

...everyone came.


End file.
